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Vivian is thrilled Isabella is all right. And now that some time has passed, she's extraordinarily proud of herself, as well. She did it. She brought sphinx magic back, it worked!
She moves 'spell can create non-extinct species' up her priority list. Someday, when it's safe, there can be more sphinxes.
She tells the owner of the Avalon magic shop that she's testing some experimental new healing spells and to let her know if anyone is interested. She pretends to be violently protective of "her spell" and insists on secrecy in spell casting, and only accepts those whom medicine could not otherwise help. 'Cancer curing spell' is less suspicious than 'spell nearly exactly duplicating sphinx magic' anyway. And she lets Isabella heal them, carefully, one at a time.
Vivian and Gianna continue to see each other. Gianna continues to be sweet and funny and fiercely, protectively loyal and just generally adorable, and Vivian is crazy about her. Work starts 'coincidentally' sending Gianna to San Francisco more often. When Isabella notices how much time Vivian and Gianna spend together, Vivian uses her questions as an opportunity to explain a few things. Isabella's reaction turns out to be, "Oh. Okay. I like her all right," before returning to her latest magical project, which makes Vivian giggle. How very like her daughter.
Life proceeds reasonably comfortably for the new few years. Isabella makes acceptable progress in school and astonishing progress in magic, or rather, she does whenever she can be lured away from 'casting healing spells' with Vivian. Vivian herself blows up a few beetles but eventually manages to create non-extinct species. Vivian claims a newfound interest in traveling to her friends, and periodically bundles Isabella onto a plane to go 'be a tourist' somewhere. Panda bears and Florida panthers start mysteriously, coincidentally increasing in numbers.
Gianna is still wonderful but she refuses to come out to Ilario, which Vivian... is upset about, but deals with. Reluctantly. It's not her place to say how and when Gianna comes out, if she does at all, but she hates feeling like a secret. The long distance becomes more of a sticking point. Vivian can't move to Italy or Gianna's friends would Find Out; Gianna won't move away from her brother. When Isabella is eleven, Vivian and Gianna reluctantly admit it's time to break up. It's about as amicable as they can manage under the circumstances, but Vivian still spends a couple of weeks sadly eating chocolate. Isabella is quietly soothing and spends a lot of time hugging her, which Vivian appreciates. Sphinxette snuggles are the best snuggles.
She throws herself into her work. She successfully creates a baby pegasus for a pegasus couple struggling with infertility, and suddenly finds herself with a second source of income. Critter couples hoping to adopt have very few options if they want a child of their own species- or they did, until Vivian. She charges more than the adoption centers, to encourage parents to take home existing children, but there's occasionally someone willing to pay. She contributes the bulk of her earnings to Isabella's college fund and uses the rest to reduce the amount of time she spends making charms. More time for Isabella, more time for magic research, more time trying to locate dragons. (She has been wildly unsuccessful at this task so far and she finds herself regularly heaping swearwords on runecasting's inefficiency at information gathering. This does not help.)
She dates a few more women, but nothing nearly as long as her relationship with Gianna. When Isabella is fourteen, she explains to her mother in her serious Isabella fashion that she thinks she likes women. But also men. Vivian tells her that being bisexual is totally okay, she will always love Isabella very much, and yes, it's time for the sex talk now.
More time passes. Vivian and Isabella continue to travel, mostly to China. They speak the language, they can visit Vivian's relatives in Wuxi, and people love Isabella. They ask her for pictures, they want to pet her hair, they tell her how beautiful and pale she is, they exclaim excitedly over her wonderful Chinese. Isabella's not wild about travel in general, but she likes China, and Vivian just laughs and takes advantage of it. The Chengdu research base is confounded but delighted.
Isabella is seventeen when Vivian overhears some interesting gossip in the Avalon. Someone turned up a wyvern in Toronto of all places, isn't that odd? A brand new one too, just found her medallion by accident. Who knew there were wyverns in Canada anyway?
Vivian didn't, that's for sure. Her friend Helen is roped into babysitting Isabella, and Vivian catches the next flight to Toronto.
Time to meet this wyvern.
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revivian
revivian
"Oh, of course. I'm just a bit unsettled at the moment. It'll wear off and I'll feel horribly dumb. The handwriting just startled me."
revivian
Vivian looks over it again. "I could nitpick a couple things if you want to be exact, but it'll work as written."
maybeso
May puts the necklace on, and vanishes! Only her wheelchair remains. She reappears in the process of taking it off. "Woo. Flying to school, here I come."
revivian
"Your wheelchair didn't vanish," Vivian mentions. "Do you have an extra at school, if you fly?"
maybeso
"I don't always need it. My legs can move and support weight and so on, it's mostly a clumsiness issue, and I leave it home half the time anyway when there's no ice on the ground. I can make a separate doodad for the chair if I want, though, since the spell works."
revivian
Isabella is also clumsy. Vivian declines to mention this. She's just...startled, or something. May's right, it's too strange otherwise.
It's impolite to just start correcting another person's spell without prompting. "Would you like tips on changing a spell target when the target's no longer animate?"
It's impolite to just start correcting another person's spell without prompting. "Would you like tips on changing a spell target when the target's no longer animate?"
maybeso
"I have some preliminary notes on that, although I didn't put a lot of time into developing it without the necklace, since an invisible chair by itself would just mean I could appear to float around in a sitting position - admittedly cool but not practical. Here." May flips to another page and shows Vivian the notes.
maybeso
And May makes the suggested adjustments and then fairly adroitly composes them all into a tidy diagram.
horsefeathers
On the far side of the park, a group of children are just arriving. There's two small boys and one small girl, and they are led by a familiar blonde head.
As soon as they reach the park, the smaller girl shifts into the form of a tiny pegasus and starts galloping around the park. A high pitched "Wheeeeeeeeeeee!" trails behind her.
It's not a very large park; she eventually passes Vivian and May and skids to a stop, wings fluffing out behind her. "Hiiiii!"
As soon as they reach the park, the smaller girl shifts into the form of a tiny pegasus and starts galloping around the park. A high pitched "Wheeeeeeeeeeee!" trails behind her.
It's not a very large park; she eventually passes Vivian and May and skids to a stop, wings fluffing out behind her. "Hiiiii!"
maybeso
"Hi, Anne!" (May has carefully memorized Jenny's siblings' names.) "How're you?"
horsefeathers
Anne is not as careful about memorization, but she does at least know that May goes to school with Jenny and anyone she meets in Avalon already Knows About Things. This is good enough. "I'm a PEGASUS now! I got my medallion! Look look look, I have wings now!" She flails them around haphazardly, avoiding hitting anything almost entirely by accident.
horsefeathers
"Alllllmost. Look!"
More flapping ensues, more vigorously this time. A few inches of lift are achieved, along with tiny cyclones of leaves and grass flying away from her in every direction.
"I flew, I flew, I flew!"
More flapping ensues, more vigorously this time. A few inches of lift are achieved, along with tiny cyclones of leaves and grass flying away from her in every direction.
"I flew, I flew, I flew!"
horsefeathers
"I only got my medallion a couple weeks ago!" Anne says indignantly. "I'm practicing."
At this point Jenny has managed to convince Tom to kick a ball around with his little brother and for Patrick to stop sulking and play with Tom, you'll get your medallion soon too, and can come over to check on Anne. "Oh hi May! Sorry if Anne's bothering you and-" she fails to recognize the person standing with May, "-your friend."
"Am not!" Anne objects. "May's nice! And she's seen me fly now!"
Jenny, who has seen this 'flying' for herself, giggles.
At this point Jenny has managed to convince Tom to kick a ball around with his little brother and for Patrick to stop sulking and play with Tom, you'll get your medallion soon too, and can come over to check on Anne. "Oh hi May! Sorry if Anne's bothering you and-" she fails to recognize the person standing with May, "-your friend."
"Am not!" Anne objects. "May's nice! And she's seen me fly now!"
Jenny, who has seen this 'flying' for herself, giggles.
maybeso
"This is - somebody who hasn't introduced herself," says May. "Who has been giving me runecasting tips. I have a necklace of Gyges now."
revivian
"Oh, sorry, I wrote it down in your book but didn't think to say..." Vivian trails off with a sigh at herself. "I'm Vivian Sun. I'm a runecaster from California."
horsefeathers
"Nice to meet you. Welcome to Toronto!" Jenny says cheerfully. "Is it your first time here?"
"Jennyyyyyyy," Anne squirms, nipping at her sister's side for lack of hands to poke her with. "Jenny what's a necklace of Jeeze?"
"Jennyyyyyyy," Anne squirms, nipping at her sister's side for lack of hands to poke her with. "Jenny what's a necklace of Jeeze?"
revivian
"No, actually, I'm staying with a couple of college friends," Vivian murmurs, and leaves it at that.
maybeso
"There's an old story about a ring that could turn people invisible, called the Ring of Gyges. I have a necklace that does that now," May explains to the little pegasus. "So I'm calling it a necklace of Gyges."
horsefeathers
"Oooooooooh. Is it pretty? Can I see?" Anne asks interestedly.
"Oh hey you did it! Eeee, that's great! Congrats!" Jenny contributes. There has been occasional discussion of Relevant Things at school; she's at least vaguely aware of May's magical plans most of the time.
"Oh hey you did it! Eeee, that's great! Congrats!" Jenny contributes. There has been occasional discussion of Relevant Things at school; she's at least vaguely aware of May's magical plans most of the time.