"I know a bakery that you used to like... I hope it's not weird, mentioning things like that."

"I've treated people who lost their memory. It's best to accept that it's weird and move on. I appreciate you helping me figure out what I liked, actually."

"Okay. So does the bakery sound fun, Kaede?"

"Yeah."

They head out towards that bakery. Elodie offers to pay. "How much of your magic do you remember how to do, 'Rana?"

"Most of the healing, I think. I can do things with air, I remember, but haven't tried that beyond basic breezes."

"-We used to use magic in cooking sometimes. We called it 'the impossible cake project'. We could make cake arches, and insubstantial clouds of frosting, stuff like that."

"...Huh, that does sound like fun."

"Want to do one tonight?"

"If Kaede wants to. I'm - she's, reassuring, to be around." Terrana looks hesitant, afraid to cause offense at this statement, but Elodie just nods.

"It sounds like it'd be lots of fun and amazing to watch."

"Cooking is best when it's a collaboration! We do most of it without magic anyway, so you can definitely help."

"Cool, I'd love to."

And then they're at the bakery.

Elodie starts describing her own magic - which seems to be basically a little hydrokinesis and relatively limited transfiguration-slash-alchemy. "Good for cookin'! And good for skipping some steps in surgeries too complicated for 'Rana's magic alone, too, sometimes. Oh, I recommend the Pecanocolypse if you're not allergic to nuts."

Sounds tasty. She'll have one of that, then.

And some croissants and coffee and some other things and put it on Elodie's tab please.

She starts discussing cake techniques. Baking is surprisingly complex.

Kaede: is pretty good at cooking, like, food, but not really things like sweets and cake and anything extraneous to survival. She pays attention.

...And that's why you want to moisten the flour first, but evenly... Of course, solidified yolk is no good here so watch the temperature... She's always had a fondness for brown sugar if only it wasn't quite so darned sticky...

Terrana nods along, drinking it up, apparently remembering some of this...

Awwwwwww.

Elodie continues to dominate the conversation. She's very talkative.

Eventually the food is gone. "So should I plan on seeing you guys at six or so at my place?"

"If Terrana's in I'm in, too."

"For sure. This is exciting! It's exciting being excited!" Eeee.

Elodie writes down her address before going off with a "Back to the grindstone for me, take care!"

It is so good to see her happy!

"Kaede, I've got to see about getting you some magic. It's not even thinking you deserve it, you'll do good with it. And well. You've got the right kind of drive."

"Drive?"

"You do things, throw yourself into things, I can tell. You visited me so often, you read all those books and hunted down genies, and just... Your whole attitude. It's good for a Sprit Bearer."

"You'll make me blush."

She is not blushing.

"Well, I'll have a talk with the spirit of the rivers. She likes me. She probably won't even realize anything was wrong with me. Maybe she'll give us good terms for your activation. If you want it, which I've been assuming is a 'yes'."

"Yeah, it kinda is, if it won't kill anyone or anything like that. That'd be horrifying, getting it from a spirit's fine and having magic sounds extremely useful."

"It really is. And we don't age, we can live forever - if you don't end up like me."

"...I didn't know that. Why didn't I know that."

"...I don't know? I thought it was mostly common knowledge. The current head of the Spirit Association fought against Napoleon at one point."