"That too!"

"People don't come here much. If you want to meet any people who are not me you'll have to go to other places or wait three months."

"...in three months I can meet the baby," surmises Water.

"That's right!"

Water giggles. "I like it here! I might fly around but I will probably come back."

"That makes sense. I would leave sometimes if being found weren't dangerous."

"What would happen to you?"

"Another magician could catch me and they'd take my baby away. Or another spirit could decide to kill the baby so there would be one less magician in the world."

"What would magicians do with her?"

"Raise her to think she shouldn't love me and kidnapping spirits is okay."

"Why?"

"Because most magicians seem to either not know or not care that spirits are people. They think of us as--animate forces of nature."

"...and magicians are not supposed to love those?"

"Magicians are--if a magician captured an elemental and decided they loved it as they would a pet, that would be alright. They'd teach her she shouldn't love me as her mother, because mothers are people."

"What's a pet?"

"A pet is an animal that a human keeps for company."

"If I kept an animal for company what would it be?"

"Oh, it would still be a pet, it's just it's mostly humans who keep animals for company, that's why I said it like that."

"Oh. Are animals good company?"

"I guess they must be. The magician who captured me didn't have a pet."

"How did you get away?"

"I convinced him I wasn't going to try to escape so he wouldn't be as careful about making sure I couldn't."

"But then you did escape."

"Yeah."

"When was that?"