witches treasure children

[dark_light]

Here is Milliways. It's Milliways with an empty Belltower, but it's still a neat place to hang out between making bits of incremental progress in motion spells and coaxing advice out of the alethiometer and wedging herself into clan politics.

Comments

[pythbox]

Ivy jumps down from Sue's shoulder, lands on the ground as a white tiger, and bumps her head against Amariah's legs.

[dark_light]

"Okay?" Amariah asks, looking between Ivy and Sue.

[pythbox]

"Yeah," says Sue.

"Pet me," Ivy demands.

[dark_light]

Amariah pets her, laughing.

"Oh, something you should know - you and Ivy can't get too far away from each other," she tells Sue. "It's possible to get so you can by forcing it, but it hurts - not in a good way - and you're not going to want to. Kas and Petaal had to once and now they can be as far apart as they like, and Pathalan and I did it because witches all do, but most humans never try."

[pythbox]

Ivy purrs a loud rumbling purr.

"Okay," says Sue. "But is it bad for us?"

[dark_light]

"It won't injure you," says Amariah. "But it'd feel like you'd done something cruel and evil and untrue-to-yourself, on top of just plain hurting-in-a-bad-way. A lot of people who separate have kind of tense relationships with their daemons for a while after, sometimes indefinitely - me and Path didn't have that, and neither did Kas and Petaal so you'd probably be fine, but it's something to keep in mind."

[pythbox]

"I mean if someone put her in a box and flew her back to Earth," he says.

[dark_light]

"It'd still feel like that - that's just fundamentally how it feels, not a feature of doing it on purpose - but you wouldn't die, and you'd eventually be able to function after the bond was stretched enough to give you arbitrary distance. Except not so functional during the part where someone was putting her in a box," shudders Amariah, "not everyone's me, it won't feel nice if some stranger grabs her."

[pythbox]

"Yeah," Sue says quietly. "I know. Kas showed me."

[dark_light]

Amariah nods. She's scratching tiger-Ivy behind the ears now.

[pythbox]

Ivy purrs some more.

Sue grins and sits down next to her and hugs his tiger.

[dark_light]

Path hops onto Amariah's knee and nuzzles Ivy's foreleg.

[pythbox]

Giggling, she licks him.

[dark_light]

"Ack!" says Path, fluffing all his feathers out.

[pythbox]

Ivy snickers, leaning her head against Amariah's leg.

[dark_light]

"Kas, Petaal," calls Amariah, "what're you doing all the way over there, huh?"

[truthwright]

"Good question," laughs Kas.

Petaal turns lioness and bounds over to flop down on Sue's other side, flicking her tail against Ivy's and pressing her nose against Amariah's leg. Kas follows a little more slowly, and sits at Amariah's feet, where he can pet both large felines and give Path scritches should Path be inclined to receive them.

[dark_light]

Path is so inclined. Path is feeling friendly today.

[pythbox]

Cuddlepile!

"Thanks," mumbles Sue, leaning his head on Petaal's furry shoulder. "I love you guys."

[dark_light]

"Then it's good you found us, isn't it," laughs Amariah softly, patting his head.

[pythbox]

He emits a credible purr.