She left her apron at home; the woman who steps into the interview chamber is coiffed, trench-coated, and pretty; when she hangs up the coat and fedora to sit down, she looks like a 30’s screen siren. Blond-brown hair falls in perfect ringlets. A tea cup comes to hand, and she smiles at the audience over it.
“I hear you have questions of me?”
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I liked the primary school intervention. If it isn’t a trade secret, what did the tea you used do?
Thank you! She smiles brightly, and pours you a cup of tea in a fine china cup. Some tea? The brew that I used at school simply had a bit of calm-down and a bit of believe-me in it, just enough to, shall we say, nudge the poor girl in the right direction.
Thank you. Is there anything in it besides the dried and cured growing tips of a camellia species plant? Any…flavourings, for instance? *smile back*
This cup of tea here? No. No, this is all tea, no… flavourings. I was assured that would be inhospitable.
Thank you. People seem to be very fond of Earl Gray but I find I don’t care for the taste at all.
No? Well, to each their own.
Can I ask what your eldest boy said to Junie’s classmates? The ones who were so determined to put her on a status step below them, no matter waht.
Did he really now? You’d have to ask him what he said. I’d be interested in hearing the answer.
*Deep swallow* (May have dropped son in it, ouch)
oh, no, don’t worry.
Your son is a nice boy but I don’t think I want him annoyed at me. *sips tea*
No, I can imagine one wouldn’t. All right then, I shan’t get him in trouble, especially if he was standing up for Junie.
Thank you. I got the impression that with those girls if it hadn’t been dragons it would have been something else, anything else that was different from them that they could twist to exclude her with them being ‘better.’
Some children are like that, yes. It’s a pity, but we all have to get used to people like that.
Better for them to learn early that it is not desirable behaviour.
Indeed. And I do believe my Jin would be good at teaching that.
It probably didn’t hurt that Jin seems like the sort of boy they probably want to be old enough to attract, if these are the some of the boy-mad classmates Junie has complained about before.
That could be, yes. I hesitate to think about that…
Whether they were ready for anything like that and whether he was aware they existed as anything other than nuisances might have no bearing on how they think…:)
…Granted. Well.
Or I may be reading far too much into it and getting them confused with an older age group.
On a somewhat related note, do your children not have non-human classmates? I was surprised to learn that some people at their school don’t seem to believe in other races.
They have non-human classmates: pixies, brownies, elkin, those sort of Races that are mostly human-shaped. And I don’t think that they were so much no believing in dragons, as not believing that Junie was spending time with them. Humans normally don’t, you see.
(Having asked … I now find myself flailing for questions better answered here than in stories.) What do you want for your kids? Would you encourage Juniper to study at the Pumpkin (if her interests seemed to lie in that direction)?
I want my children to be happy, healthy, and wise. I want them to find a road that makes them happy, but I want it to be an honorable road. If Junie truly seems a fit for the Pumpkin, I will send her there with my blessing, but I don’t think that that will be her road.
What about Jin being recruited by the Black Tower? Could that be a good path for him?
It… could. Yes, I don’t have to like it, but it could point him in a good direction.
What other paths are available if he wants to refine and improve his abilities? Schools, apprenticeships, independent study …?
There are very few schools; the Tower is the biggest of those and the best. Independent study… I worry that he would burn himself out.
What defines (makes?) (someone) a dweomer? Humans with talent, inclination, or training in magic? Family tradition? Something else?
Ah. Well. I speak to human dweomers, because I do not know if other races have them. Would they speak of them? Hate them? Fear them? Love them? I’m not brave enough yet to ask. But a dweomer, as far as we can tell, began as a dream, a spell, a strong emotion. Began I say, because once dweomers came into existence, they vanished into the human race. They – ah. We. Look the same. Act the same. Except for the magic in our veins.