"Ooh, presents."

He reaches into his bag, and he retrieves a slightly tacky looking circlet, and a less tacky looking ring that is outright pretty.

"I apologize for the." He waves the tacky circlet helplessly. "The this. But it's a circlet of intelligence and I couldn't find one as good that was less. This." Shrug. "The ring's a ring of clear thought."

"It's fine," says Serik. "I appreciate your presents even if one of them is kind of stupid-looking."

"Yep. I can try to look for less stupid-looking alternatives, but I figured getting you these as quickly as possible was more important."

He offers the stupid-looking circlet and the ring to Serik.

He accepts them and puts them on. One at a time, ring first.

The ring expands working memory sharply, and the circlet enhances conventional memory, and seems to speed up how quickly he can think. And also it looks terrible on him.

They're probably going to both be at least a little useful.

"...huh," he says. "Oh, I like that. That's useful. Thank you very much."

"You're welcome! Do you think it'll help with the spell creation?"

"Definitely!"

"Good, glad to hear it."

He smiles.

Saskia flits back after a little while, bouncing on her toes happily.

"i like your library a lot!"

"I'm glad!"

One might get the impression she's smiling, if she had a mouth. She does not have a mouth.

"i think i like it here. do you have a place i could stay that won't get too bright? m'lord said that this isn't as bright as it gets here, i don't think i'd like that very much."

"Hmm," he says. "I should probably just make you something, it'd be easier than trying to find a guest room that doesn't get any sun. What do you want in a room?"

"a bookshelf. a chair. a place to put things that i want to keep. maybe a desk?"

"She doesn't need to sleep," clarifies Veron.

"oh. yes. i can if i get bored though. can the chair be good for that if I want to?"

"Yeah. I can also just make you a bed. They're comfy. Hmm - I bet you'd like to be near the library - do you need to eat...?"

"you can make me a bed if you want! yes, i'd like to be near the library. i don't need to eat but i can if i want. most human food tastes weird."

"All right, time for me to do architecture," he says. "You can come watch if you like."

And he turns into a breeze and descends to the bottom floor of the library and reappears and walks out. There's a corridor there with room for another door; he makes one, and shifts the shape of the castle around it until he can install a cute little spiral stair leading down below the library.

It takes her a bit longer to get there, being unable to turn into wind, but she uses judicious application of flickering speed and incorporeality and gets to where he's working soon enough. She would love to watch.

Veron follows, though he takes noticeably longer to get there. He tries not to shadowstep unless he needs to.

"D'you want your own magic bath?" he wonders. "The ones aboveground all have windows."

"... what for?"