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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
horsefeathers
"Oooooooooooooooooh!" Anne squeals in delight, flapping her wings excitedly. This time one hits Vivian in the shoulder.
revivian
Vivian barely notices. They are tiny wings and she has been smacked by many, many wings before.
horsefeathers
Jenny, however, does notice. "Anne! What do you say?"
"Sorry, Miz Sun," Anne says dutifully, hanging her wings down.
Jenny sighs and turns back to- what is probably May, somewhere. "Nice job! That's so cool, whatcha gonna do with it next?"
"Sorry, Miz Sun," Anne says dutifully, hanging her wings down.
Jenny sighs and turns back to- what is probably May, somewhere. "Nice job! That's so cool, whatcha gonna do with it next?"
maybeso
May takes the necklace off and puts it in her pocket. "I can fly to school. And when school's out I can fly around in the middle of nowhere where my dad lives."
horsefeathers
"Your mom drives you now, right? Are people gonna ask how you get around without her?"
maybeso
"I'll tell them that's a rude question to ask someone just because she's handicapped. Besides, I don't think most people who don't know me well are aware of how I get to school."
horsefeathers
Jenny smiles. "As someone who has recently gotten to know you- that is a pretty short list. I feel all special!"
Anne, feeling ignored, trots up to her sister and nudges her with her nose. "Jennyyy? Since I'm being good and not flapping, will you braid my hair? Please?"
Jenny giggles. "Hair or mane or tail?"
Anne considers this seriously for a second. "Mane!" she decides.
Jenny grins at May. "Want to join?"
Anne, feeling ignored, trots up to her sister and nudges her with her nose. "Jennyyy? Since I'm being good and not flapping, will you braid my hair? Please?"
Jenny giggles. "Hair or mane or tail?"
Anne considers this seriously for a second. "Mane!" she decides.
Jenny grins at May. "Want to join?"
revivian
Vivian's not much use here- she's had short hair for decades and Isabella's never gone much for intricate braids. But she she contributes a spell to turn the hair ties Jenny brought pink and sparkly. They are very enthusiastic about the change.
maybeso
May seems to have gotten over her offense at being considered charismatic megafauna.
revivian
Vivian finishes colorizing the provided hair ties, then leaves the hair braiding party to it. She takes her leave of May politely, with a smiling reminder to please contact her if she ever has magical questions.
It was... not her most successful trip, perhaps, but she's at least generally satisfied. She still hasn't proved that the 'wyvern' is a dragon but she has strong evidence she's not just a wyvern (and oh, will there be research into dragon spellcasters when she's home). She made an idiot of herself more than once, but she thinks (she hopes) she groveled enough that May isn't still upset with her. She was helpful with magic? That has to count for something? If nothing else, magical safety benefits everyone.
And there's the weird thing about the handwriting. But it's so outlandish she starts doubting herself the minute she leaves. Plenty of people sound the same; there's no reason they can't write the same, too.
She gets home a day later, thoughtful and still rather bemused. Then she goes and gives Isabella a report.
It was... not her most successful trip, perhaps, but she's at least generally satisfied. She still hasn't proved that the 'wyvern' is a dragon but she has strong evidence she's not just a wyvern (and oh, will there be research into dragon spellcasters when she's home). She made an idiot of herself more than once, but she thinks (she hopes) she groveled enough that May isn't still upset with her. She was helpful with magic? That has to count for something? If nothing else, magical safety benefits everyone.
And there's the weird thing about the handwriting. But it's so outlandish she starts doubting herself the minute she leaves. Plenty of people sound the same; there's no reason they can't write the same, too.
She gets home a day later, thoughtful and still rather bemused. Then she goes and gives Isabella a report.
revivian
"I checked it over for her, I remember it well enough, but I'll write to the Toronto magic shop if you'd like me to ask for an exact copy."
shesepankh
"Yeah! I could use it to fly around outside. The one-shot spells wear off way too fast. She sounds neat."
shesepankh
"Does that seem polite? She didn't meet me. Also you think she's a dragon."
revivian
"It's a small magic community, it's not unusual. And she seems, in the realm of 'possible dragons', close to our best case scenario. But I can write it for safety's sake."
revivian
"Of course, love. I'll do it."
Shortly May will have a very polite note, sent through the Toronto magic shop, complimenting her spell design and asking for a copy at her convenience.
Shortly May will have a very polite note, sent through the Toronto magic shop, complimenting her spell design and asking for a copy at her convenience.
maybeso
May emails her a photo of the diagram, a list of the runes and their size ratios, and the incantation in English and French. The email also says Are you going to fly around populated areas in broad daylight too?
revivian
That would be quite a feat, wouldn't it? No, I was planning to make it as a gift.
Do you ever sell your inventions? I can send you what the Bay Avalon is paying for charms nowadays if you'd like a look.
Do you ever sell your inventions? I can send you what the Bay Avalon is paying for charms nowadays if you'd like a look.
maybeso
I don't have enough of them for it to be worth the overhead in figuring out sales, but I'm planning to later on.
revivian
Well, then she may have a list of prices. It includes names, basic descriptions of the spells and prices in both US and Canadian dollars. (There's a footnote that she is not a money changer and she just rounded the Canadian prices to about a third above a dollar.)
maybeso
Well, that warrants spending some of my summertime on arts and crafts to assemble useful objects, huh?