Kalars writes back; she has his utmost sympathy, but if she doesn't want a visit he doesn't need to be there for his own sake.
Raney doesn't write back; she just turns up the next day, dwarf caiman familiar tucked under her arm.
She wants to meet her son-in-law.
"It was my fault, I brought it up in the first place, I'm sorry. I just - I want to know how you're dealing, Iobel sweetheart."
"I'm safe, I'm emotionally stable, and some of the long-term details are waiting for better moments," says Iobel firmly.
"Sometimes it's like you're hexed, dear," sighs Raney, and she starts serving herself lunch. "Speaking of which how has your research been going?"
"Not hexed, Mom, just - thoughtful. I can walk through walls now. I have another section on my ideal teleport done. Four more, estimated, and then I can start deciding what to prune so I have a usable teleport. I'm stuck again on the immortality hex, I ordered a book on some of the medical stuff that should be here in a few weeks."
Softly, Edarial provides, "I will also give her my spell charts for detecting people through walls. So if she wants she would just be able to leave at any time."
"I'll probably actually want to revise your perception spell. It's good, but it wrecks a lot of detail. And I don't think you're trying to hold me here. I don't think I'd have to charge up one spell to walk out free and clear, all right? I have fully integrated that information."
"Making sure. I uh - actually made it to prevent - er. Peeping," he says, looking embarrassed.
"Wait," says Zevros, breaking his vow of silence. "You made it do silhouettes only so I couldn't perv on people when you cast it on me, didn't you?"
"...That hadn't even occurred to me. That's something, I suppose, but I still think you could let it show faces without making it totally intractable."
"I've been trying to figure that part out but still haven't managed it while still - leaving some basic values of privacy."
"Well, maybe I'll make progress. Probably too complicated to get the spell to actually check whether people are clothed or not, though, the definition of 'clothed' would take up several square feet of chart by itself probably."
Zevros pouts. "I don't even remember what I hated about him, Edarial, what did I hate about him?"
"I believe you hated the nasally way he spoke, the way he stuck to rules without discrimination, constant nagging..."
"I guess if you're not going to be a spellbinder that's a good reason," says Raney, running a finger along the spiney top of Nimmen's tail.
"I also remember him whining about how I got a 'cool snake' while he would be stuck with a 'lame turtle,'" informs Edarial.