She reads for about half an hour and then puts the book aside and says, "Alright, I think food now."

Food!

Mm, food. She manages to multitask eating food and cuddling him.

Cuddles are so good. She is so good.

Mm.

When she finishes, she says, "Alright, let's go."

"Okay."

He hugs her. He folds them both into the wind and they flow down the mountain to Maran's city.

There's nobody in the back room, but Tarro is near it, sitting at a window and sketching the trees in the garden.

"Hi! So this is what I really look like."

He looks up from his sketchbook.

"Well, you're lovely," he says. "And in a surprisingly good mood. Are you here to - fix the floor - or is this a social visit?"

"Floor fixing, alas. I found a spell in a stolen spellbook that will let me get back to my home plane, so once Serik's put together a spell in case I get stuck there, I'm popping back for a rather important errand," she all but bounces when she says this, "and I'd really rather the curse have as little reason to bother me while I'm there as possible. Serik expects to take about a week to fix up his end, so the plan is one visit now and one then."

"Oh, I'm glad to hear that. Good luck on your errand, whatever it is."

"I have a daughter. It--wasn't safe, to bring her up myself, when I could be accosted by anyone at any time--but she's still a baby, and with Serik's magic and reputation between me and anyone who might want to--I can get her back."

He smiles softly. "Oh."

"I'm so, so, so excited! Hence the surprisingly good mood!"

"I'm happy for you," he says sincerely.

"—it'll be a little awkward if you're this - bubbly - around Maran; he has to keep a more delicate balance around this sort of thing than I do. It would bother him more to hurt someone he felt close to."

"--Oh. That's a shame. Even if I explain that this arrangement is actually really really convenient for me?"

"Yeah. It's still - kind of viscerally upsetting, and it's hard for him to quiet that reaction far enough that he can do it at all."

"And what about you?"

"Oh, I'm unnaturally good at not letting things bother me."

"Okay. I can get myself under control."

He smiles at her again.

She grins back and hugs him.

Aww. He laughs a little and hugs back. (Turns out he gives pretty good hugs.)

Hugs!

After a moment she steps back. "...I am supposed to be getting myself under control," she observes ruefully.

"I'll stop hindering you, shall I?" He looks down to close his sketchbook and lets his smile fade.