"I was very good at avoiding provoking the woman who owned me for most of my time in Tayane. As people who purchase six-year-olds go, she was positively saintly. And I would like to stop dwelling on my childhood while I am so very, very old and have unrelated accomplishments under my belt, thanks."
"Anyway, after my having been born in the charmingly named South Fork, my parents Raney and Kalars got divorced and Raney moved with me to Emavan. She taught school, so I got a few years of it as an employee benefit to her. I bound Cricket young and turned out to be pretty good at spellbinding and soon I was able to rent and stock a hex and spellchart shop myself. And then the, ah, fiasco, happened."
"It's unlikely," sighs Edarial. "Unless you happen to own a time machine, we are in the market for one of those."
Iobel smiles slightly. "Barring that - well, we're doing what's doable, and that which isn't won't get more so if you go hmmmm at it. Though you do seem less outrageously showoffy about how cutely coupled you are than Ice and Cypress, so thanks for that."
"Thank you for that," he says instead, cordially.
"It might have helped that I figured I wouldn't be able to find love, ever. Or that if I did it would come with various problems from my home to solve and prevent me from - fixing all of the various problems my former home has. Except it turned out to be the exact opposite of that and Isa- Ice, Ice annihilated those expectations and is everything I'd never dared to hope for and more."
"Also the soul birds. I think the soul birds help."
"Another thing I want to know is why you don't truncate 'Isabella' like I do."
"Bella doesn't sound as witchy. I like the way my name scans first and second parts with all its syllables. Isabella Amariah. What's your middle name? You have one, right, mortal style?"
"That's - weird. Cool, but weird. Do we have a similar name thing? My full name's Darren Elliot Sanders."
"Well, it's better than random, anyway. 'Darren' is the obvious Anglophone gloss on 'Adarin'."