"Going to the baird is only slightly better than accepting life without any Art, ever..." Jochy's mouth twitched a little. "Let's hope the first option is at all possible. When... when would be a good time for yer to try? I didn't expect to dump this on you so suddenly, but the choice was kinda made for me. I couldn't go back without asking, it ain't that easy to travel back or forth."

Cara raised a pale eyebrow. "What is the baird and why is it so bad?" she asked interestedly.

Morgana snorted. "Jochy had one bad experience with a bard and now he's full-on against them. He's like the cat who won't sit on a hot stove nor a cold one." Delicately, she parted the strands in her weaving that were set to keep Jochy out. "I'm nearly done boiling. If you're in haste to be away, give me enough time to rake out the fire and boil some pots and I'll see what's to be done. I haven't e'en laid eyes on those wards since I put them down."

"Well, yeah... but to be fair I ain't too fond of people better at the headgames than I am. But, I've changed a bit, I won't bit their heads of. Just... I'm still a bit sore about being brainwashed. Kinda humiliating in my business." The comparison to cats was apparently rather apt.

"And if yer can, that would be wonderful. For me it's best to get it over with, just... I don't wanna intrude on yer life anymore. Trying to turn over a new leaf and all."

"Brainwashed?" Cara asked. "You were brainwashed?" She looked curiously at Meg...or, rather, pointed her paper bird at her. "What is that you're doing now?" she asked.

"Suck it up," Morgana said, brisk but friendly. "If it takes the baird, the baird it will be. What, do you mean with the--" She looked back at Cara, waving vapour out of her face. "The mint, d'you mean? It's going to be a base for something later, but it takes quite a lot of it."

"I'm an expert on sucking it up" Jochy replied cheerfully. "I've been told I'm quite good at it." He grinned a little, and started to relax.

"It was a thing Cara, certain people objected to my friendship with other people, and thought it would be simpler if I just didn't remember them. Didn't play out so hot, but all is well that ends well. It's all water under the bridge now."

"Well, no," Cara replied. "What you just did to let us in. But I'd be interested in hearing about the mint, too," she admitted, then gave Jochy an elbow at his sucking-it-up joke. "You'll tell me about it later?"

"Let us not be coy," Morgana said primly, turning back toward the yard. "Jochy would not let my baby sister alone, and she all of seven, and he leading her into situations where she was getting shot at and held under suspicion by the late Queen. Therefore it seemed an effective way, short of killing him, to make him let her be."

"Which is also why there are wards here keyed to me, which was what she removed just now" Jochy explained. "But it's alright, I don't do that shit anymore. Seriously. I was crazy back then."