“I see, that is clever. Air mages can sense wind direction almost innately. What you’re doing is probably something similar.” Genoa nodded, seeming to accept the lie easily.
They ate in peace while discussing school topics. How much Juliana hated history came up more than once, courtesy of her father. He didn’t mention either of their ecology classes. Eva thought he would be all over Professor Twillie’s class, at the very least.
Creatures found in a normal zoo were apparently too commonplace for him.
Eva briefly considered asking Genoa if she had any interesting stories. Carlos stood up just as Eva opened her mouth.
“Look at the time,” Carlos sad with a glance at the table. “We must be off or we will be missing our flight.”
“Flight?”
“Your father and I are traveling to Russia for all of January and February.”
“In the middle of winter?” Eva couldn’t help but shudder at the thought. She though Montana was cold and yet Russia was known for freezing temperatures.
“Quite so,” Carlos said with a grin, “it is the best time to observe leshenka. All the Russians drinking to keep warm draws them out in hordes.”
Juliana opened her mouth but her mother headed her off. “Don’t worry, your father and I have
“Mother…”
Genoa barked out a laugh as she pulled on her heavy fur coat.
Eva wondered if she planned on wearing more in Russia than the straps exposing most of her skin she currently wore.
“Oh, yes.” Genoa dropped a hand in her pocket and pulled out two objects. “Merry Christmas, you two. Good luck with your gift exchange,” she said. After dropping the objects on the table, she ushered herself and a politely waving Carlos out of the cafe.
Eva pulled all the tiny flecks of her blood off their clothes as they left. She moved some to the small box in front of her.
Juliana already had hers open. “Oh mother,” she mumbled.
Eva kept her blood off of it, wanting it to be something of a surprise for when she opened her own box.
It was a little cardboard box that folded back at the top. Eva gently pulled it open and flooded the inside with blood. A tiny flood. Just enough to get a good read on what was inside.
It took a minute to figure out what she was looking at. At first, she thought it was a coil of rope. It moved. A snake maybe? Except it didn’t have any blood.
Puzzled, Eva turned to Juliana’s and sent a few flakes to check her gift out.
Standing in her hand was a miniature bird. At least, it had wings and feathers and clawed talons. It stood up like a human and had a human-like face, minus the feathers making up its hair.
It was moving around too despite also having no blood.
“Oh,” Juliana said as she glanced over, “a basilisk. I think they’ve only made five or six of those.”
Eva sent more blood beneath the little snake. Sure enough, there was a head and very sharp feeling fangs. She carefully stuck her hand down in the box and picked it up. Eva didn’t believe Genoa would hand out things that could actually hurt her.
Hopefully.
It squirmed over her gloves, wrapping itself between her fingers before settling down. Its tail threaded between the rest of her fingers and coiled its head onto her palm.
It stared straight at her.
“I suppose I’m glad I’m blind.”
“Don’t be silly, it can’t hurt you. They make these and sell them for a lot of money. I wish I knew how. They said they’d teach me when I got older.”
The little harpy in her hands flapped its wings and fluttered to her shoulder.
“The harpy is a humanoid though. If they’ve made five basilisks and they’re extremely rare, the humanoid ones are essentially nonexistent.”
Eva looked back at the snake in her hand. She wiggled her fingers. It didn’t like that. After scurrying between her fingers again to reset its position, it hunkered down on her palm with a glare.
“They’re not alive, are they?”
“No, they’re enchanted carvings, basically. Each receives an imprint from whatever species it is. The smarter the imprintee, the more work has to go into making them.”
The basilisk in her hand continued to stare at her. Eva slowly brought her hand one way then another. The snake head followed her the entire way.
“I think it is trying to kill me,” Eva said with a grin. “I like it.”
“Figures,” Juliana said. Eva could see the blood vessels in her eyes going for a roll. “My mother has you pegged well.”
“Hopefully not too well.”
“Well,” Juliana shrugged, “she didn’t try to attack you. I’d say she doesn’t know everything.”
“Always a good thing in my book.”
Another teapot wandered over to their table. Eva watched as the blood in Juliana’s face scrunched up.
“Let’s get back to the dorms,” she said. “Shelby and company will be wanting to meet up soon.”
The two left quickly, arriving at the dorms just in time for curfew to settle in.
