Talyn looked at Leekath, thinking fast. "You can't go out in the sunlight, right?"

"Well, I can for a little while, but with two suns and no screening spell I'll start to burn after a few minutes."

"Do you like caves?"

"I don't know. I've never been in a cave."

"There are some not too far from here, and I can jump us part of the way there There are transfer points all over the place around here for us to practice with. We'd be in open air for about five minutes. Is that too long?"

"I'll get at least a little burnt, but probably not too badly."

"Would an umbrella help?"

She nodded.

He led her downstairs, fetching an umbrella along the way. "The caves have some pretty neat formations in them And I don't imagine you'd be bothered by the bats."

She shook her head with the faintest of smiles.

"Unless," he said "Would you like to meet the other apprentices?"

"That would be interesting," she said.

He grinned. "Well, you've already met Jenn. Most of the younger 'prentices are being taught now, but the older ones should be out and about somewhere."

She nodded.

He led her towards the kitchens. "Everyone here's already heard about your world, so that won't take much explaining."

"You'll still have to translate."

"I can do that. It's not hard."

Talyn opened the door to the kitchen. Jenn looked up from over a pan of potatoes she was frying, and giggled. "Look everyone, it's Talyn's giiiirrrlfriend!" she squealed. Two other girls and two boys looked up from their chores as well. One of the girls, with a complexion similar to Rhysel's, had a slightly annoyed expression on her face.

Leekath waved.

Talyn pointedly ignored Jenn, "Everyone, this is Leekath. She's from the world Rhysel is stuck on. Leekath, that's Nevyn," he pointed to a dark-skinned boy scrubbing vegetables, "That's Byron over there," he indicated the other boy, a short stocky teen with pale blond hair, "And Emryl and Rysha." He indicated the two girls; Rysha is the red-head, while Emryl's complexion was almost like Leekath's - quite pale with dark hair. Each of the apprentices waved in turn. Nevyn, who appeared to be the oldest, added, "Good to meet you, Leekath. You staying for dinner?"

"I can't cast the time spell here so I don't know how long it will be before I get summoned back," she said. "And I don't eat food anyway."

Nevyn grinned. "Then I don't have to worry about adding to the menu." Talyn headed him off before he could ask what she did eat, saying, "Leekath's a vampire. On her world, they subsist on the blood of other species. It's a rather odd sensation, but totally harmless." He took Leekath's hand.

Jenn cringed.

Leekath smiled fangily at her.

Jenn looked as if she might faint, although the others - except Rysha, who appeared to be trying to ignore Leekath's existence - seemed unbothered by it. Emryl smiled back at Leekath, apparently enjoying Jenn's discomfort.

"I don't bite people without their permission," Leekath said seriously, after becoming tired of Jenn's squeamishness.

Emryl looked disappointed. "Where's the fun in that? Now we can't tease Jenn about it! Would serve her right the way she's always on at everyone." She grinned cheerfully at Leekath, winking.

Jenn lobbed a small blob of water at Emryl in retaliation, sticking her tongue out at her, although the other girl stopped it with a thought. "Okay, you two. Stop it," admonished Nevyn.

"What craft do you study, Leekath?" Byron asked after a moment, attempting to divert the conversation away from bickering.

"Wizardry," Leekath said "And I'm a hearer, but I didn't have to study that."

"What's a hearer?" he asked. "Like a counselor or something?"

"No Inanimate objects have spirits called hhikiias that talk to me."

Rysha actually looked at Leekath for a moment. "Excuse me," she said to Nevyn in a slightly strangled voice, "I've got to go." She ran out of the room, a worried look on her face.

Leekath looked after her, somewhat resignedly.

Talyn stared after Rysha for a moment curiously. "Wonder what brought that on."

Emryl said, "Why don't you just see what she's thinking, Talyn?"

He replied, "'Cause she's been specializing in mind-magic. She's good at keeping me out." Talyn shrugged, "Rysha's always acting nutty around me anyway. Maybe I looked at her funny. Who knows?"

"I should mention hhikiias don't usually know much about live things," Leekath said.

"That might do it anyway," Emryl said. "She's got this diary she never lets anyone read. Maybe she had it in a pocket or something."

Leekath sighed.

Talyn put his arm around her. "Don't worry about it."

After a slightly awkward moment, Nevyn said, "Anything we can do to make your stay here comfortable, Leekath? You're certainly welcome here."

She shook her head "I'm fine, thank you."

<Don't worry that anyone will think you're weird 'cause you hear hhikiias,> Talyn sent. <Rysha hears people's thoughts, Byron listens to animals, and Nevyn talks to the dead. No one's going to think you're the least bit odd.>.

<Okay.>.

Emyrl had been looking at Leekath with interest, and finally pipes up with, "You know, aside from the teeth, and being even paler, you look a lot like my sister did when she was fifteen."

"You look kind of like one of my cousins," Leekath replied.

"How big is your family?" Emryl asked with interest.

"Living in our house I have a brother and a sister and my dads and three aunts and two uncles and five cousins, and two grandparents and a couple of great-uncles and great-aunts and a first cousin once removed and his wife and two second cousins. I've got other cousins who live in other houses though."

Talyn left Leekath's side long enough to steal a couple of the carrots Nevyn had washed, munching on one as he returned to her.

"That's a lot of people to have in one house," Emryl said, while Byron asked curiously, "Dads? Your mom have two husbands?"

"No, they're married to each other. I don't have a mom."

"How can you be born without a mom?" Jenn asked. "Even if she's just a surrogate."

"There's a spell. One of my aunts had to actually carry me and my brother and sister, but my dads are both really my dads."

"Huh" Byron said.

Emryl said, "Hey, Leekath, don't go anywhere, okay? I'll be right back."

"Okay."

The halfblood girl hurried out of the room.

"Do you like music?" Byron asked as Emryl left.

"Yes, but mostly vampire music, which nobody else likes."

"Not entirely true," Talyn said with a grin "It's really strange, but I didn't mind it."

"What's it sound like?" Byron asked Talyn.

"Like this." Talyn played back part of one of the songs from the concert, using image kamai to create the sound.

The three other apprentices remaining listened politely, but appeared to not be fans of it "That's quite different," Byron said when the music stopped.

Emryl returned at this point with a glass cube about six inches on a side. "Here's a family picture my uncle took a few years ago. Vella's seventeen in this one, but you can still see the resemblance." She held the cube out for Leekath to look at, pointing to a halfblood girl who looked remarkably similar to Leekath, although several years older.

Leekath looked at it and nodded.

"What are the other pictures of?" Leekath asked, in case they were not for public consumption.

"How'd you know about that - oh. The box probably told you, didn't it? You can hear what things have to say, you said. Just other shots of the family. Nothing special or secret."

Leekath flipped through the rest of the images, then sets it back to the first one and returns the box.

Emryl grinned at Leekath. "It's really uncanny."

"It's useful sometimes."

"Useful that you look like my sister?" Emryl asked, confused.

"No, useful that I can hear things. But the resemblance is uncanny too."

"I can imagine it would be I don't know any of those tricks, myself."

"If you'll be back sometime, I should have you meet my sister. I think it'd be fun to see the two of you together."

"I'll probably be back every seven days for an overnight stay."

Emryl nodded. "I'll mention it when I next send a letter to my sister."

Nevyn grinned. "Emryl, you want to make everyone part of your family, don't you?" She blushed slightly but didn't appear upset by his comment. "Nothing wrong with that."

Nevyn replied, "No, there isn't, unless our guest is uncomfortable with that."

"I don't mind," said Leekath.

Talyn grinned. "Well, what if I don't want to share? She's my friend too, you know." His tone was clearly teasing.

Jenn piped up again with, "Yeah! She's your giiirrrlfriend!."

Talyn retorted, "And? How many boyfriends have you had in the last two months again? Ten, wasn't it?" He was grinning at her. He also sent to Leekath, <This wasn't exactly the time I'd planned on asking, but would you like to be my girlfriend? I'd like that, but I'm not going to claim you as such without finding out how you feel about it first.> Byron joined in on teasing Jenn; "No, Talyn, it was twelve."

<It's okay with me>

Jenn blushed a bit and shut up. Talyn sent a burst of happiness across to Leekath. <Thank you!>

<You're welcome.>

"Jenn falls in love every time she goes into town," Byron said to Leekath by way of explanation. "It's rather amusing, really."

"Oh."

Talyn grinned at Byron. "While Byron, on the other hand, has never asked a girl out in his life. He'd rather spend his time with birds and horses and other animals," he said to Leekath.

"Horses are like that thing at the demonstration?" the vampire asked.

"Yeah." He looked at Leekath, surprised. "You've never seen a horse before?"

"We don't have them."

"Really? You're missing out," Byron said. "You should take her for a ride, Talyn."

"That would explain the reaction at the demonstration, then..." Talyn added, "But yeah, we'll have to do that. Although probably at night."

"Why at night?" asked Leekath.

"So you don't get sunburned."

"Oh, right. It's so strange that I can't cast spells here."

"I imagine that would be unnerving," Nevyn said.

She nodded.

"Anything we can do?" Emryl asked. Talyn opted to simply monitor Leekath's emotions to make sure she was doing all right.

Leekath shook her head "I just have to remember not to go outside in this shape without an umbrella."

"Emryl's in the same boat," Talyn said with a grin. "Thirty minutes outside, and one of us has to heal her before she blisters."

Leekath shook her head "Even at home I'd burn in ten minutes With two suns I'd be practically crispy after five."

Emryl shook her head in sympathy. "Ouch."

Leekath shrugged "I usually have a sunscreening spell on. I don't think about it."

"That would be useful," Emryl agrees.

"Both suns aren't always visible. Zaquea's star - that's the small red one - is only visible half the time," Nevyn said.

"Oh," says Leekath.

"You need to brush up on your astronomy, Nevyn," Emryl chastised. "Here." She conjured two balls of handfire, setting one spinning about the other. "We can only see it when it's to either side. When it's in front of Agosh's star, we can't see it, but it's still sending light and heat to Barashi. You'd know that if you burned easily - or at all," she said, a touch of envy in her voice.

Leekath watched the handfire.

Emryl noticed Leekath's gaze. "You find it interesting?"

Leekath nodded.

---

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