black bats flying round and round

[colorshapes]

They're not really colors or really shapes, but Addy's tastes aren't really tastes, so Kerron thinks it's okay to call them like that anyway. Addy does too and they talk about colorshapes every week. He likes Addy. She has simple colorshapes that are easy to understand and he can help with lots of them. Other people have more complicated colorshapes but he's getting better at reading them while they fly through the air.

He's on his way back to the quarters he and Mummy and Daddy share, and he's just pushed open the door that usually leads to the right building in the Forks compound.

It doesn't.

Kerron has only opened this door twice before in this direction, but he sure remembers where it used to go. Probably Mummy or Her Majesty did a magic here. He wants to see what kind. He goes in and lets the door swing shut behind him.

Comments

[colorshapes]

"Ooh, when'd you meet Her Majesty?"

[pythbox]

"Last month."

[colorshapes]

"Huh. I don't remember anybody talking about visitors to Aurum then. Did she go here? Usually Her Majesty doesn't come here, just Her Highness."

[pythbox]

"Time works strangely at Milliways," she evades.

[colorshapes]

"Is that why you didn't know what date it was?"

[pythbox]

She nods.

[colorshapes]

"What's your world like? I've never been to any besides Aurum. And here if here's a world."

[pythbox]

"No magic," is the first thing she thinks of to say.

[colorshapes]

"That's awful!" says Kerron. "Magic is great! I have lessons with Addy for it every week. I'm much better at colorshapes now."

[pythbox]

"What... are these colorshapes, exactly?"

[colorshapes]

"They're -" Kerron waves around at the colorshapes orbiting Roberta herself, then puts his hand down again. "They're not really colors or really shapes but it feels like they are, and they tell me what people want, and if it has to do with me. I'm a witch and an ingot. I'm the first witch ingot ever! Addy thinks it's because Mummy's a mint and Daddy's a witch."

[pythbox]

"What," she asks patiently, "are witches and ingots?"

[colorshapes]

"Witches are the kind of magic that Aurum had to start with," Kerron says. "There's lots of witches. Like me, and Daddy with his timer, and Her Majesty has something that makes a lot of other powers not work on her, and Alice can see the future, and Jasper can feel other people's feelings and push on them, and Addy copies other people's powers - that's why she's my magic teacher - and the Princess tells the truth, and like that. And ingots are a kind of magic from the same world as mints. Like witches sort of. People have powers that do stuff. But not exactly the same, Addy says, so I can have both."

[pythbox]

"Lucky you," she says, amused.

[colorshapes]

"Yeah!" agrees Kerron. "Addy wants Mummy and Daddy to have more kids so she can see if they're witch-ingots too. Addy likes figuring out magic stuff. She's got really simple colorshapes and they're pretty much all about that."

[pythbox]

...Despite her best intentions, she finds herself asking, "And what do Mummy and Daddy think of that idea?"

[colorshapes]

"They haven't decided yet!" says Kerron. "I think they're gonna wait a little while before they have more though. I was an accident. I heard them talking about it when I was a day old and now I know all the words and Jasper thought I was gonna have complex from it but I dunno what a complex is or where I'd find mine if I had one."

[pythbox]

The bat lady laughs.

[colorshapes]

"What's funny?"

[pythbox]

"You'll understand when you're older," she assures him.

[colorshapes]

"Awww, man."

[pythbox]

...fine, fine.

"Some kids," she explains, her smile fading, "if they find out their parents didn't have them deliberately, can start feeling unwanted and unloved, and sometimes that feeling lasts for a long time. That's what Jasper meant by a complex."

[colorshapes]

"Oh. I know my parents love me," says Kerron. "There's all these colorshapes about it and they're easy to read when they're about me! So I'll be fine," says Kerron.

[pythbox]

She smiles again. "That's good."

[colorshapes]

Kerron nods.