(...Honestly part of it is that she usually doesn't sleep at night. She usually studies or does homework or just personal projects she doesn't need a workroom for.)

Well, Daniella's happy to keep snuggling.

The snuggles really help. 

She's glad.

Yeah. 

...Though now as Luthien's calming down they're getting to the dilemma of lying in bed with her eyes closed being very, very boring. 

"Book," El mumbles sleepily, grudgingly awake enough to vaporize an unwanted intruder before rolling over after a slightly more energetic door-scratch. She gestures vaguely to where she left it, not lifting her arm more than half an inch. "Let 't know we haven't forgott'n..."

She kisses El's cheek. "Go back to sleep, darling." And gently wiggles out of bed - Daniella can take over cuddling El - and goes to dig through El's bag, glad for something to do. 

It's right on top, waiting for her. On the high end of fancy for a spellbook, the title is in archaic Arabic, a collection of and commentaries on (here the font shifts to suggest a different alphabet) the Golden Stone sutras.

!!!

Is this book aware that it is the best book ever and she's very sorry for neglecting it so long, and it's gorgeous, and she's going to do so much with it, and she's going to get that handmade leather oil her mom uses when she gets home to clean the cover, and she apologizes that all she has right now is this little dust rag to clean every nook and cranny of the embossed cover and then to very very gently clean and check the pages...

If it was going to disappear as soon as their backs were turned, it probably would have done so already. Maybe it understands they had a rough time very soon after finding it. Still, it might be a good idea to get El to coddle it a bit too before breakfast.

There's a long way until then, and a lot of time in the meantime for Luthien to skim through it and start on the translations in the back of her head and, what's more, daydream. 

She lets El sleep until the end-of-curfew bell goes off, at which point she loses control of the wiggles and pounces on her sister, excitedly chattering - "El! El! El wake up, we're gonna make a golden enclave just for us - "

Bluhwuh-huh?

"El that book was the Golden Stone Sutras, it's so pretty and wonderful and I love it," she says, half to the book, which probably hasn't been told enough that it's amazing, "And we're going to make our own little golden room when we get out of this school - and we can make one for our moms too, mum would love a little friendly yurt - we should make our own golden enclave and call it the valley of love and delight, that'd be really cute - "

Is she a little manic from the surreality of the mawmouth after the fairly minimal amount of sleep she got yesterday before the whiplash of the best book ever? Maybe! 

Wait the book is what what the fuck!!

"The Golden-" Wow okay she is awake now. "Oh, look at you," she croons at the book, reaching out to stroke it. "So patient and kind and wonderful, I bet Lu already told you about Mum's special oil but you can consider that a promise from me as well, and we'll make you a special case of your own, one that lights up, and it's going to be so good and you're going to be so much help."

"And our little golden valley will have the most beautiful library - but we'll have a private little study area just for reading you, and it'll have gorgeous electric lamps - I'll make them myself, of stained glass so they're pretty enough for you - and we'll only allow the best people to touch you, anyone else we share the spells with will get to look at how beautiful you are but they'll have to settle for clean copies - properly illuminated of course to reflect your beauty... And El's the best artificer, she's so good at making gorgeous works of art for her things - she made my collar - and your special case is going to be the envy of every other spellbook ever - "

"And you'll be with us all the time until then, never going to set you aside, because you're important, you're so so so important."

"We'll need to make you a carry case in the meantime - I'll spend today working something up for you."

"For now though- You could share with Lu's spellbook, maybe? Get to know it, feel what it's like to be loved by us."

She pulls over her bag - clean thanks to the numerous tiny spells she embroidered into the canvas - and opens the spellbook pouch in it to introduce them.

Her spellbook has, fortunately though not surprisingly, not abandoned her.

It's a sharp contrast to the gold embossed leather of the sutras. It's a book made out of printer paper with thin wooden boards she wrapped in scrap fabric for the covers, the spine made out of ribbon wound through irregular holes she made with a hole puncher (for the paper) and a spell she invented for stabbing things with a toothpick (for the wood). The book's grown since as she's written more spells, and she's added whatever pages seemed prettiest or most aesthetic to the back. And it's got organizational tabs made out of glitter cat stickers her primary school art teacher gave her, and ribbon bookmarks with assorted cool charms attached (mostly of cats), and the cover is haphazardly decorated with glued-on fuzzy black fake cat ears along the top, and scattered sparkly rhinestones and puff paint designs all over both covers. In the center is written in big glittery red painted letters, LUTHIEN'S GRIMOIRE, and written under that in black sparkly gel pen (a bit scratchily, she'd forgotten pen and cloth don't mix), 'No Boys Allowed To Read.'

She made it when she was ten, and the very first spell written in it is the one for turning someone into a catgirl. The second spell is the one for stabbing holes through wood with a toothpick. 

(It looks rather unrealistically big for something she brought with her to induction, which is because she didn't. She left it at home, and then she went to induction and spilled down to the cafeteria to find El, and when she reluctantly dragged herself back to her room she found it sulking on her bed like a jilted cat, pages bristling with useful and/ or loving notes from her moms. She's kept it with her ever since.)

"I think you'll love each other," she says, brightly, "My spellbook and El's spellbook, just like me and El."

"You two are so adorable."

"We aaaaareeeee," she says, delightedly.

"Being part of your library sounds like it'd be fun," she teases.

"There's a lot of spellbooks I can promise a place to..." Teasing grin. "And some pretty girls who could be prettier decorations."

Wigglegrin!