“I can speak for myself, thanks.” Madeleine’s eyes had angled themselves upwards again in a glare and she waited a moment for some kind of smart response before choosing to pretend the snake hadn’t ever spoken at all. Where was she? Ah – nudity, flames, generally the things that sounded like an excellent idea to her. “I don’t think human torches get cold... Or was your lack of gentleman showing in not offering to lend your shirt to a woman in need?” A great deal of her money was going on the latter. Which was fine, actually, because it amused her and any thoughts of commit any kind of assault against him was more or less waved away. For all of a second she wondered how many women had tried to slap him for comments like that before she realised that, no, she did not want to know. Though perhaps she wished to know where they currently lived. Thoughts that were not to be shared with Zaviar if her familiar knew what was good for her. “That said, should someone stumble upon us I think they’d notice a naked, flaming woman before they did a teacher practicing witchcraft. You would have time to pretend you… weren’t.” Or a well-placed burst of flame would just make them bugger off. Whichever.
‘It’s getting coldchillyuncomfortable up here,’ Althea complained, then realised nobody seemed to be listening. She missed Madeleine’s garden torches. A few more moments of sulking and there was a definite rustle of leaves as she began to make her way down again. As usual, her ward was not paying any kind of attention. The magic-thing, and obviously Zaviar, held too much of her interest. What she didn’t really understand, as she watched the page turn, was how this went from words on a page and things – ingredients – laid out neatly to magic. To Madeleine, magic was someone walking through fire and never burning, summoning an earthquake at will, the rain or even a full thunderstorm. That was the most fundamental of magic. But how did the spoken word and everything else that was here become quite lethal? “Otherwise I’d be forced to elbow you,” she stated as a point of fact. It was that or set fire to his feet and her version was by far the kindest. Well, she was being much nicer to him than she was her own familiar, who had decided that the easiest way out of the tree was down… Which meant straight from branch to ground, and the only thing that delayed the thud and disgruntled complaint that was about to sound for everyone to hear was the constrictor’s sheer length. And there it is. “You did that all yourself,” Madeleine remarked without sympathy as Althea tried to uncoil from the knot she had landed in.
‘Yes, well.’ No, the snake did not care that she sounded a little too much like her elemental just then. She was occupied.
Madeleine’s shoulders curled in like a reproached child. “Twice.” She was sure she was supposed to have gone more than that. “I’ll go again soon,” she defended. “But the gel for the scans is so cold.” How she hadn’t melted the doctor’s face off was completely beyond her. Now, the rest… The rest was something she hadn’t thought about. Like Antonin’s mention of last names. Although in this case she had just assumed her would say if he wanted to go with her. ‘And how does he do that if he doesn’t know when you go?’ Shut up. The snake who tied herself in a knot – ‘I am almost out of it!’ – had no room to talk. “If you would like to. I wasn’t sure I should ask in case it sounded like—” Her nose wrinkled while she tried to word it. “—a heavily biased suggestion.” It wasn’t supposed to be.