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Loretta marries in her early thirties and has one child, a boy who's as obsessed with swords as she is. The two of them exasperate Loretta's mother, but she is much mollified, now that she knows it's possible to make swords magically safer. Loretta and her son conveniently never mention to her that they buy most of their swords in Aylia's world, and never bother to cast any safety spells upon them. In fact, Loretta's kitchen is filled with small swords and daggers in place of all normal cutlery.
Lionel is a frequent baby-sitter, the "fun uncle" who is a blast to hang out with, but not . . . er . . . all that terrific a role model. In his mid-twenties, he's more fond of daredevil stunts than ever, and he now has the money and the age to do some really crazy things. He fortunately does survive all of this, but after one hang-gliding accident where he breaks a leg, his parents catch on to what he is using his credit cards for and read him the riot act before taking them all away. In their mid-forties, Loretta and her husband get a surprise second baby, a girl this time. Their daughter doesn't understand her mother's sword-fanaticism at all, but she does share her father's obsession with race cars and building hot rods. The two of them spend many happy hours in the garage whenever Loretta takes off to go sword-shopping. |