"Aeslin, any considerations?  Otherwise...probably the basement.  Quieter and secluded."

"Basement works.  Some spells do better with growing things nearby, but I don't think we'll be doing any of those."

"To the basement, then."

Violet leads the way.  Hmm.  The meditation room is probably best; it has the right ambiance.

Aeslin smiles briefly at the meditation room, and then starts taking a large stack of books and notebooks and wands and pens out of her backpack.

"First up, Violet, the simple basic tests to see if you're a golem - though even if you pass, I still wouldn't be sure.  If we're already considering the possibility of new magic, we should consider the known-possible possibility that you're an unusually exact golem.

"And second, it's too bad we don't have a real check for memory rewriting, but - Lila - I'm going to run the basic tests just in case someone modified just your memory sloppily.  That's still the simplest explanation, even though it's boring.

"And then... while we're here, I might as well map out the earthheart-lines in this part of town.

"Questions?  Suggestions?  Shall we get started?"

Without waiting for permission, she takes a crayon from her pack and draws a quick circle on the tile floor around Violet.  "Oh, just stay in the circle - won't hurt if you cross it, but it'll make the results weird.  OK?"

"It would probably have been better to not draw all over the floor, but, fine."

Aeslin taps Violet's forehead with the wand, and then brushes it over the crayoned circle.  Sparks fly from the wand, some to the circle (where they light it a glimmering rainbow), and some to Violet (where they fade out as soon as they touch her skin, with just a slight momentary cold feeling).  She then waves the wand in the air just over the circle around Violet in a rhythmic pattern.

"Seven days... eight..." Aeslin murmurs.

More sparks start glimmering on Violet's skin, with a little tingling feeling.

"Eighteen...twenty...twenty-two..."

The red vanishes from rainbow of the circle, glowing a brighter and brighter violet.

Finally, Aeslin calls, "Forty-two!", draws her wand across the circle, and lets it drop.  The tingling sparks vanish from Violet's skin.  The circle might still be slightly glistening, but it's once again obviously crayon.

"Well, I've checked for flaws and haven't found any yet.  It would take at least six weeks to make a golem as good as you by compounding.  That's the simple equivalent reckoning - totally ignoring the problems of pressing all the spellfolds on top of each other that mean it'd really take more like a year if everything goes well.  There're only a few golemcrafters in the world who could do that, and as far as we know Gilbert's spending all his time on other things...  If I were a guardsman, I'd say you're clearly not a golem.

"But we're already considering all sorts of weird magic... Or maybe it's the simple answer and there was only one memory spell.  Lila?  Your turn in the circle."

Lila had hardly been blinking through the spell.

"Were you reading her mind?  Are you going to be reading mine?" she challenges.

"No, more like..."  She pauses a moment, fishing for the right word.  "A check for consistency, if your mind's all in rhythm with each other.  If I had enough experience feeling the details, I could use it to tell whether you were elves or humans or naga or so - but that's it, and unfortunately I can't even do that."

Violet's quite intrigued by this.  "Would it have to be one crafter, or - our mother works with computers; could they have modularized it somehow?  What did the visual effects mean?"

"Oh yes, you can definitely modularize golem-crafting and have multiple crafters do it!  Most golemcrafters do!  But you still need to fit it all together and make it all work together as one golem at the end.  Unless you're making a network along the lines of an octopus with multiple brains and almost multiple different minds - there're some fascinating attempts like that in Sumatra that I'd love to see, if I didn't have so many other things to study --  But anyway, you've definitely got one single mind - I've proven that, in case you were doubting - and that still runs up against the fundamental problems of pressing spellfolds together.

"I don't know much about calculating magic with computers - that's another fascinating field of study - computers are so recent and I don't think most mages understand anything near their potential.  Just like I don't think they understand the implications of telecommunications and surveillance cameras -- but that's another matter."

"...Human brains have sections, though."

"Yes, and the sections are working together intricately to make there be just one 'you' overall."

"...I suppose that's not false."

Lila steps up to the circle.  "Here, could you step out and let her check me?"

She looks curiously at Aeslin.  "... You look human, Aeslin... are you?"

Violet exits the circle, and watches whatever happens next intently.

"I wonder if it's possible to build a self-improving spell."

"I'm actually a quarter-oread," Aeslin says.  "And in theory yes!  Golems can cast magic themselves, so we should be able to build a spell to improve itself, but it hasn't been done to any significance at any smaller remove --"

Lila steps into the circle.

"Oread?  That's a rock-nymph, right?  Are dryads and naiads real too?"

"Naiads yes, but they look even less humanlike than Grandpa Palakk - before you ask, these robes aren't hiding anything; I got the human body genes.  Or I guess you could call it human-or-elf-body; Elves look so much the same they've enrolled in human schools without any problems.  Lots of theories why; no answers.  But anyway, the memory test spell."

She taps her wand to Lila's forehead, and then the circle.  Once more, the wand lights up with sparks.  This time, the sparks flying to Lila cluster around her head like in a hairband or coronet, as Aeslin waves her wand in a slightly different rhythmic pattern.

She murmurs something to herself as she casts, but it's in a different language.

After a few minutes, she bends down and strikes her wand across the circle again.

"Good news, Lila!  I can't find any signs of spells sloppily modifying your memory!  Again, doesn't mean they didn't, but it means we've still got an interesting question on our hands!"

"...Huh.  Wonder if you could do - search by specific constraints, if you had enough power."

And then there is magic.

"...Well, that's just great news."

"Oh?  What exactly is 'great news', exactly, dear daughters of mine?  And their unexpected visitor?"

"Mom!  We were -"

Her first reflex, from dozens or hundreds of books, is that telling Mom would just mean she interferes with whatever magic adventures.  But she doesn't like lying... not to mention how lying to Mom usually doesn't work.  And she has no idea whether Violet or Aeslin would be willing to back her up on a lie more detailed than "homework" if she told one.

And then she notices how the circle's still glistening unnaturally.

With only a couple moments' pause, she deflects.  "We were talking about Violet - you tell her."  She nudges Violet.

"Both the obvious tests returned negative.  Aeslin's Lila's blatantly-witchy classmate."

"...That's very resourceful of the two of you, but that was not staying out of trouble, Lila, darling.  You don't know who she works for, if indeed she does work for anyone, or whether she's aligned with anyone who'd wish us ill.  As it happens, I know who you are, Aeslin Sellon, though I had not expected to meet you in this particular circumstance.  Your tutor, with whom I am acquainted, often praises your spellcraft and maligns your dress sense."

Aeslin's surprised - they're actually telling their mother?

Okay, maybe the Masquerade's going to be coming down today.  Hopefully not.  Next to no adults even realize it might happen soon, so they'd all be blaming her, and she really doesn't want to have to run away to Great-Uncle's mountains...

Oh great, she's a mage after all!?

"Uh, thank you, and hi, Ms., er, I don't remember your name?  Your daughters told me a really interesting wild story that doesn't have any of the obvious explanations."