"Pretty much. It's annoying, honestly."

"Wait so you could have made a spell to let me see naked people at any time?!"

"Could have," agrees Edarial. "But not going to."

"I'm suddenly glad you didn't get along with your turtle."

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..."

"Yeah, that sounds like someone I would hate."

Iobel snorts. And pets Cricket, who purrs.

"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.

"I would totally trade my stupid turtle for Berathyme, she's kick-ass!"

Edarial smiles a little, and pets his snake. She nuzzles him.

"Oh, poor turtle," sighs Raney.

"It is sad about the spirit animals that don't - land good places for them," says Iobel. "But there's no obvious thing to do about it."

"Oh, I know, but what if I hadn't liked Nimmen, nobody else would ever get to hear her singing and she wouldn't know what any of her foods taste like and she'd only sleep all the time and couldn't even talk to me anymore at this point, and it would be such a waste."

"Cricket wanted out, but I think mostly because we work so well together; if he'd gotten anybody but me I think he would have preferred to nap forever. But I'm sure there are some familiars that want out - or for that matter that want their sleep - and don't get it. I think about it sometimes but don't have a good systematic solution for it."

"Rather sad," Edarial agrees, "that sentient creatures rely on another so much to get what they want."

"Yes. But the case of spirit animals is particularly difficult because they are so totally incapable of getting help from anyone else."

"Right, so there's not even a way to make a spirit animal relocation program, to fit the right spirit animal with the right one person to rely entirely on. A pity, that."

"I've considered writing a spell to let people trade them, but I don't think I have enough theoretical foundation."

"Plus there's the problem of trading their languages, too. Since we're not even sure how those work, they might not be transferable with the spirit animals."

"Yes, so the first experiment would involve finding a few people in their mid-teens who don't plan to spellbind and don't much want to chat with their spirits. But there are plenty of those."

"Unfortunate in most cases about this subject, but not so much in this particular one."

"I mean, I can also understand people not choosing to add the risk of unmaking when they can just skip it. If they have no head for spells, don't like the animal's company, and don't feel like laying their - self, if not quite their life, on the line to allow another entity that will be unavoidably somewhat dependent. But it would be nice if there were fewer lost opportunities that could have worked out nicely."