"Thanks! I need to test that, if it matters or not. It hadn't come up yet for me on my own, but since we need scrolls for self-defense, now - time to find out."

"A stencil could still be really fast, though, considering, and it would make it harder for someone else to figure out our secret and swipe our market share."

"I think you mean 'economic'. Economical makes it sound like we're doing it with discount snacks from Costco."

"That was the second stage of my plan," drawls Darren.

Bella laughs.

Darren does, too.

Savannah desperately wishes they would kiss. Maybe not now, with their dads in the car, but eventually.

Darren snickers, and gives her a rune.

"Augh," says Savannah. Then she flops over and tries to sleep because magic makes her head hurt.

Darren's not likely to complain, either. Runes are lots of fun and he enjoys talking about them! Bella's rune dictionary is doing well, they're making good progress on magic.

Savannah naps, but she is generally annoyed with them doing nothing but throwing runes at each other. "Auugh," she says, two hours in. "Okay - vetoing, we will talk about something other than runes for the fifty bajillionth time."

"What do you want to talk about, Savannah?" inquires Bella serenely.

"... No idea! But something else."

"You don't have any ideas and you don't like our idea. Whatever are we to do?" Pause, then she relents. "Tell me about the Avalon's tourist attractions or whatever."

"Um. We've never been there. Dad! Help!"

Vernon snorts. "Well, there's a lovely cafe."

"Yeah, what do they have? I'm gonna be hungry by the time we're there."

"Good coffee, and some delicious pastries, but I didn't get much proper food wise when I was there. There are a few restaurants for that. One of them is a nice Italian place, I went there, it was nice."

"Just how big is this place?"

"Pretty big. Basically, consider it a town all of its own. A very insular town. With critters of all kinds."

"Cool. Is it customary to go around in midform or anything?"

"A lot of them go around in midform, fullform's a bit rarer because thumbs are fantastic, but there are people without medallions. Going in human form also happens and no one will care if you do, though they might get curious about what you are."