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Aurin holds his mother's hand as she leads him from the street to his aunt and uncle's house. He's been here only a couple of times, and can't remember most of them distinctly; they're sort of awkwardly related, his dead father's half-brother and the wife thereof. But now they have a baby parunia, and that means there is a dragon related to Aurin who is not too far from his age, only thirty-one years younger. This is apparently the sort of relation that it will be particularly enriching for Aurin to meet. They can do this now instead of waiting a month, because parunias don't die when they're babies; this one is safe, unlike the miscellaneous cousins on his mother's side he's never met because they are all in too much danger to get attached to (and have all succumbed to that danger). So here they are. Even though it was a very long flight and he couldn't ride his mother for takeoff and landing when she had to be a heron, only for the middle part.
Alys knocks on the door.
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Finnah has nothing else to say on this subject for now.
greatcomposure
Koridaar is informed of circumstances.
She writes to Colla.
Finnah declines your invitation. She would rather stay with us.
She writes to Colla.
Finnah declines your invitation. She would rather stay with us.
There is a delay, and a letter from Colla to Finnah.
Finnah discards it unread.
There is a further delay, and a letter from Colla to Koridaar.
There's no longer any reason for her to be away from home. Xaran can shift now and the plan was always that when that happened she would come home. Surely you can explain it to her if she doesn't understand it from my letters?
She's not even seventy. Please send my daughter home.
greatcomposure
She made her choice, very emphatically I might add, and I am inclined to support her in it. I understand that sending her here was the best decision you felt you could make out of a set of very bad options, but that decision had consequences, and this is one of them. I will not force her to return to you when she does not want to go.
Finnah gets more letters.
She throws them away, unopened, jaw clenched.
And school starts up again at Binaaralav.
Mial goes back.
He's a little distracted for the first couple of days, missing Finnah more than he used to, but then he settles back into his routine. He is going to get through his remaining tier tests in the minimum possible time. He is going to be a wizard.
He's a little distracted for the first couple of days, missing Finnah more than he used to, but then he settles back into his routine. He is going to get through his remaining tier tests in the minimum possible time. He is going to be a wizard.
The tests continue not to be designed for him. This continues not to matter. After he has been in school for a total of three years and two months, he is a wizard.
Darn right he is.
When he goes home, he announces that they should have a party to celebrate. So they do. Aurin is invited. There is cake.
When he goes home, he announces that they should have a party to celebrate. So they do. Aurin is invited. There is cake.
Aurin likes cake! Aurin likes cake very much indeed.
Finnah does too.
Finnah does too.
And the cake is great cake, because Mial is a wizard and this is an important occasion which deserves the best of celebratory cake.
He hugs everyone a lot and eats more cake than may be strictly advisable and enthusiastically plays board games.
He hugs everyone a lot and eats more cake than may be strictly advisable and enthusiastically plays board games.
Aurin wants to know if now Mial is supposed to get a job or something, since that is what wizards do, it being a job qualification among other things. This seems to concern him. Mial seems awfully young to have to go find a job.
"I don't want a job," says Mial. "Except I'm gonna help Mom with hers! She says I can test her new spells before she publishes them." He is immensely proud.
And now Mial is not so busy, so if he would like to, he can come visit Aurin's school and see what it is like, if that falls under the category of "places that exist and therefore must be gone to". Aurin has been going to half-years of school for a couple of years (humans in Corenta start when they are six, but Aurin was allowed to start late and skip into the same form as the nine-equivalents on the grounds that he is a dragon and a) would have wasted more time than the government is prepared to demand, repeating introductory forms over and over, b) did not need to be taught to read, or about the basics of recent local history that he lived through, or do other basic things like count and name colors that may slip under the radar for six years but not for sixty). There is a visitor's day coming up.
Mial will absolutely come visit Aurin's school! It qualifies as a place.
So on visitor's day Mial may follow Aurin around and look at large quantities of Aurin's classmates milling around with their own visitors, and at displays of student art and projects (Aurin has won third place in the plaster sculptures contest and was one of fifteen displayed essays on Our City).
Aurin goes to an expensive private school that Alys chose principally for its educational virtues but which also teaches bilingually in Vansalese and Ertydon as a partial immersion language program in whichever direction. Accordingly, a number of Ertydoan, Linnipese, and Gibryelan immigrants have kids there.
While Aurin is in the bathroom -
This family of redheads looks lost and is trying to extract directions from one of the math teachers who doesn't speak any Ertydon beyond "hello" and similar.
Aurin goes to an expensive private school that Alys chose principally for its educational virtues but which also teaches bilingually in Vansalese and Ertydon as a partial immersion language program in whichever direction. Accordingly, a number of Ertydoan, Linnipese, and Gibryelan immigrants have kids there.
While Aurin is in the bathroom -
This family of redheads looks lost and is trying to extract directions from one of the math teachers who doesn't speak any Ertydon beyond "hello" and similar.
Mial trots over to them.
"Are you lost?" he asks in Ertydon. "What are you looking for?"
"Are you lost?" he asks in Ertydon. "What are you looking for?"
"We're looking for the auditorium," says the mom.
"Your accent is very good," compliments the dad. "Did you learn that here?"
"Your accent is very good," compliments the dad. "Did you learn that here?"
"No, I don't go here," he says. "I live in Esmaar; I'm visiting my cousin. I know where the auditorium is, though! I can show you!"
"Oh, he's a dragon," murmurs the dad.
"Yes, thank you, please do," the mom tells the supposed dragon.
"Yes, thank you, please do," the mom tells the supposed dragon.
"Just a sec, then."
He turns to the math teacher and explains in Vansalese, "They wanted directions to the auditorium, but I know where that is, so they're fine now!"
Then he turns back to the lost family. "It's this way," he says cheerfully. "And I'm not a dragon, actually, I'm a shren. Close enough, though."
He turns to the math teacher and explains in Vansalese, "They wanted directions to the auditorium, but I know where that is, so they're fine now!"
Then he turns back to the lost family. "It's this way," he says cheerfully. "And I'm not a dragon, actually, I'm a shren. Close enough, though."
"A what?" asks the mom.