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Vivian has always been a rabid environmentalist. Learning about magic didn't change a thing; it just gave her another tool. She's had so many plans. Some of them worked. Some of them didn't. The failures, she learns from and moves on. Today is by far her most ambitious project. Today, she's trying a spell of her own invention: restoring extinct species to the world. And not just any species. She wants to bring back the powerful magic of ages past. She wants dragons and sphinxes.
She did her research. She's cobbled the spell together from six or seven different places, and joined it together with hypotheses and crossed fingers. She tested out the individual pieces as much as she can- there's a few newly-not-extinct beetles running around her hometown now- but finally it comes down to it. The spell has some weird preconditions and a hell of a lot of setup, but she's done. It's time. Reversing the damage done in the Great War. All in a day's work, right? That's the goal, anyway.
The spell goes flawlessly. The runes and the chanting and the various pieces take her three days, but if she can do it it's worth it. When she's finally done, she has to take a moment to collect herself, and then she looks at the circles she's drawn.
The circle to her right now holds a tiny sphinx. All paws and fluff and sprawl, it's utterly adorable and Vivian can't restrain an "Awwwww." She walks over and cuddles the new arrival. "You're just the cutest little sphinx, aren't you? Yes, you are, you are the cutest." She turns to the other circle. "And your sibling is-"
-not there.
Vivian blinks at the empty space. "...huh." She looks down at the fuzzball in her arms. "Well, you worked," she tells the girl. "Nothing's wrong with my spell. So the only other thing that could have gone wrong is..." She pauses to sort out her thoughts, not quite trusting herself, but she's double checked it twice. "...I guess there's dragons somewhere after all."
Ultimately, she decides that the dragons will have to wait. Given the whole medallion system- which she's mostly impressed by, but has some really glaring, obvious flaws with perfect hindsight- the dragons might not even know they exist. She could try to tweak the spell to create a new dragon even though they're not extinct, she could try to find existing dragons, she could-
-she has a baby to raise. An extraordinarily cute little girl who just so happens to come with paws, wings and a tail. And she will raise her without all the ridiculous cultural baggage that led to the first war, and teach her magic, and they'll help save the world from itself.
She finds them a house with a backyard and wards it so the mundanes will overlook it. She arranges to sell spells and charms to the local Avalon for an easy source of income. And she focuses on raising her daughter.
She names her Isabella.
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shesepankh
That is not soon enough.
"Why do I have to wait?" inquires Bella critically.
revivian
"Because there's a lot more things that can go wrong, in a lot more ways, then anything else you might want to do. The more time you have to practice, the safer it is."
revivian
"You already are practicing a lot now," Vivian points out. This is unarguably true. Isabella has proven competent enough at things like multiplication, but she's taken to magic like she was born to it.
Which Vivian she supposes she was, but is definitely unrelated.
Which Vivian she supposes she was, but is definitely unrelated.
shesepankh
"Well, but how much actual practicing to do a spell? Making it my birthday is dumb."
revivian
"No one has an exact number, love. I'm just trying to be as safe as possible. We'll figure it out, okay?"
She may regret being less specific a few weeks later, when she is curled up in bed happily asleep.
She may regret being less specific a few weeks later, when she is curled up in bed happily asleep.
shesepankh
A little sphinx pads into her room and flaps up onto her pillow.
"Mommy," she says. "I dropped my nice pen and it's under the sofa and I can't see it. Can I try the light spell please very very careful to find it?"
"Mommy," she says. "I dropped my nice pen and it's under the sofa and I can't see it. Can I try the light spell please very very careful to find it?"
revivian
"Hmmmm?" Vivian mumbles. Light? Light. She wants a light spell? Okay, she can cast it when she wakes up. "Okay, love, light spell. I'm just- sleep a bit more-" and she nods back off.
shesepankh
Oh, that went well! Isabella was worried she'd have to start trying magic in secret, which sounded like a lot of trouble.
She goes back downstairs. She gets out the magic book with the light spell. She traces the runes very carefully onto a new sheet of unlined paper, in exactly the right order, and responsibly checks all of her lines for gaps and wobbles, and then counts the runes and makes sure she didn't miss any. Finding no mistakes, she peers at the incantation.
Mommy usually casts in Cantonese, because she's spoken both English and Mandarin long enough to have them count as her native language. Isabella's only native language for these purposes is English, but she has been taught Mandarin for the last couple of years in anticipation of later casting in that - Mommy's Mandarin is still better than her Cantonese, so it's easier to teach, and the incantations she uses won't need to be re-composed for Mandarin use, because the writing's just the same. Recently (since getting her pendant) she has even met Mommy's parents and spoken Mandarin with them. They are not particularly friendly (Isabella does not really understand what their problem is) but they made fine language practice.
She can't recognize many characters yet. But there's a Pinyin rendering in the book and she can read that. She reads it over a few times to make sure she isn't going to fumble a tone or one of those tricky X initials.
And then she gets down on the floor near where she lost her pen and holds her scroll and recites, firmly and clearly, her incantation, while concentrating on what she wants it to aim at.
She gets a little bauble of heatless light. She stretches a paw under the couch, and gets her pen. The light will wink out on its own when its duration expires. Mommy will be very proud of her, she is sure. She writes about her success.
She goes back downstairs. She gets out the magic book with the light spell. She traces the runes very carefully onto a new sheet of unlined paper, in exactly the right order, and responsibly checks all of her lines for gaps and wobbles, and then counts the runes and makes sure she didn't miss any. Finding no mistakes, she peers at the incantation.
Mommy usually casts in Cantonese, because she's spoken both English and Mandarin long enough to have them count as her native language. Isabella's only native language for these purposes is English, but she has been taught Mandarin for the last couple of years in anticipation of later casting in that - Mommy's Mandarin is still better than her Cantonese, so it's easier to teach, and the incantations she uses won't need to be re-composed for Mandarin use, because the writing's just the same. Recently (since getting her pendant) she has even met Mommy's parents and spoken Mandarin with them. They are not particularly friendly (Isabella does not really understand what their problem is) but they made fine language practice.
She can't recognize many characters yet. But there's a Pinyin rendering in the book and she can read that. She reads it over a few times to make sure she isn't going to fumble a tone or one of those tricky X initials.
And then she gets down on the floor near where she lost her pen and holds her scroll and recites, firmly and clearly, her incantation, while concentrating on what she wants it to aim at.
She gets a little bauble of heatless light. She stretches a paw under the couch, and gets her pen. The light will wink out on its own when its duration expires. Mommy will be very proud of her, she is sure. She writes about her success.
revivian
Two hours later, Vivian is actually awake and comes downstairs. "Isabella, love, where did you want that light spell?"
shesepankh
"Oh, I already did it," says Isabella. "Under the couch. I think it's still there."
shesepankh
"Yeah. You said okay, and I needed my pen. I was very careful and I did it right!"
revivian
"Aiyaaaaa you did a spell by yourself I wasn't even here-"
Vivian's brain is full of a lot of retroactively terrified exclamation marks. Obviously nothing went wrong, Isabella is here, Isabella is visibly whole, but her child just did unsupervised magic and sheeeee's just going to be hyperventilating over here for a while. Give her a minute.
Vivian's brain is full of a lot of retroactively terrified exclamation marks. Obviously nothing went wrong, Isabella is here, Isabella is visibly whole, but her child just did unsupervised magic and sheeeee's just going to be hyperventilating over here for a while. Give her a minute.
shesepankh
"You were asleep. I'm sorry I woke you up," says Isabella. "Are you okay?"
revivian
"I- didn't realize you were casting the spell," Vivian squeaks. "I am very, very glad you are okay!"
revivian
"I'm not mad at you, love. You're very good and I'm sure I did sleepily tell you okay. It's just- scary after the fact."
And a loud internal voice screaming you are a terrible mother how could you let this happen but mentioning this will not help anyone.
And a loud internal voice screaming you are a terrible mother how could you let this happen but mentioning this will not help anyone.
revivian
Vivian does not immediately drop her face into her hands and bemoan her morning. This qualifies her for some sort of award, she's pretty sure.
"...you can continue to cast the light spell, as long as I'm there to double check them. One month and then we'll add new spells."
"...you can continue to cast the light spell, as long as I'm there to double check them. One month and then we'll add new spells."
shesepankh
"Okay. Do you want to see my scroll? I'll show you my scroll." Isabella turns back a page in her notebook; she taped her first-ever scroll into it. "See?"
revivian
Vivian dutifully inspects the scroll. It is, as she rather expected, very neat and tidy.
"You did a very good job, love. I'm proud of you." Sphinxette gets a hug for her trouble. (Vivian clings slightly longer than necessary.)
"You did a very good job, love. I'm proud of you." Sphinxette gets a hug for her trouble. (Vivian clings slightly longer than necessary.)
shesepankh
Snuggle! Purr.
"I could show you how I pronounce it now," she suggests, "and make some scrolls ahead of time, so you could check them all at once, and then I wouldn't have to wake you up."
"I could show you how I pronounce it now," she suggests, "and make some scrolls ahead of time, so you could check them all at once, and then I wouldn't have to wake you up."
revivian
"No casting without me there," Vivian says firmly. "Even if you have to wake me up. It was fine this time, I'm very glad it was fine this time, but you are still only six and if you are going to cast magic I am going to supervise. I'm happy to check your work whenever you'd like, though."
shesepankh
"What will it help?" wonders Isabella. "You can check the scrolls ahead of time, and if I start saying something wrong then if you stop me I'll swallow the rest of the incantation, that's bad." Isabella knows about swallowing incantations. And that it is bad.