"That I'd like to see."

"At some point," she says loftily. "First I have to finish this painting. Say, do you know of any spells that do things to pigments?"

"Only temporarily, I'm afraid."

"Mm. I'll work something out."

"Depending on how much time you want to sink into it you could be able to invent your own spells in a few years."

"I'm double majoring," she says, "I think putting that kind of magic practice on top would be kind of ambitious." She smirks. "How many is a few again?"

"I mean, like, five? This isn't Valinor, if it were my top priority would be getting myself another anti-time-slide. I started with high school arcana and a little college plus cultural background on the conceptual stuff, and started reverse engineering things very soon after it was safe to do science."

"So I won't even be in college the whole time. That doesn't sound too hard."

"You could probably do it faster if you really wanted, since you'll get the foundational principles in a science-friendly environment and since I was concentrating on subtle arts not arcana in school. Five's a rough estimate."

"Excellent."

"Do the class requirements not overlap much for art and art history?"

"It is not the most onerous double major ever," she allows.

Giggle. "Well, I like your paintings."

She beams. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

It takes a few more days for Klaudia to talk her father into securing an apartment in town for a friend of hers he hasn't met--"He may want to meet you at some point in the future, it makes him feel more involved with my life if he can tell himself he knows my friends"--and Gloria gives her a painting of Tirion for a housewarming present and grocery shopping occurs.

Idaia's friends are so nice. Bella will pay them in magic lessons. After she's secure enough in her reassertion of her wizardly prowess she can also enchant boots or equivalent items for them!

Gloria circumvents the issue of whether sandals-and-so-on are much harder to enchant than boots by finding a pair she really likes--supple black fake leather that goes up to her knees and hugs her calves fetchingly. Klaudia has a pair of combat boots. Idaia finds something reasonably nice but nothing special. She also picks something out for Imliss, whose visit is approaching.

It's a little mana-intensive, but Bella can have everybody's boots ready promptly.

"Thank you so much," Idaia grins, doing an elaborate cartwheel that could only have ended in disaster without the boots. "These are so great."

"I love them. I can also do watches but you have watches here... earwires are next... crystal balls I want to be more sure of my work before I try that, they're fiddly."

"Doesn't surprise me, if they're magic computers!"

"They pretty much are exactly that. More uncanny resemblances, down to Caltrop Sweeper."

"You have magic Minesweeper?"

"Well, caltrops aren't normally magical. But yes."