if i got three wishes, first i'd find out all about how wishes work

[self_composed]

Bella brings two blank notebooks to school the next day. Her old one is safely computerized and boxed up with its predecessors.

At lunch, she sits with Angela; Jessica and Eric and Lauren sit at the same table but mostly talk to each other, and Mike is nowhere to be seen.

Bella is just about on time to gym, thanks to an overnight icing that means she has to pick her way with extreme care across the slippery grass or the slick sidewalks. The second time she falls down, she gives up on attempting any dignity at all, and, cradling her thwacked elbow, scoots the rest of the way to the gym on her rear. This leaves her with damp jeans but no further injuries, and they were a little damp anyway from the falls.

She doesn't have time to do more than smile and wave at Alice on her way to get her mat and get out of the way of careening balls. She spends the class doing the subset of her safe activities that won't stress her elbow.

Comments

[edgeofyourseat]

"Man, you really don't like that idea," he observes.

[self_composed]

"Well, yes. In this respect, I am a normal person."

[edgeofyourseat]

"I wish I'd been the one who fell down the chimney."

[self_composed]

"That would have been more convenient," Bella says. "In several ways."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Yeah. Like, right now you'd be making a list of all the superpowers you want."

[self_composed]

"I did already make a list like that," Bella says with a small smile.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Yeah, but differently."

[self_composed]

She nods. "Of course," she says, "if you got the powers in the first place I wouldn't feel nearly so entitled to the possible fruits of your, er, labors. Whereas I think I have some claim if a stash of coins left to me provides you the ability to produce said fruits."

[edgeofyourseat]

"...it's the same either way for me," says Alice. "I mean, if I get wish powers, I'm giving you my extras because I want to. Not because I owe you them or something."

[self_composed]

"Right," Bella says. "But I probably wouldn't give anyone else wish powers if I didn't expect to get something from it. I feel pretty okay about profiting from something that's mine and would probably be vaguely guilty if it were not ever mine and you were just giving me a lot of wishes made out of pain all the time."

[edgeofyourseat]

"I like pain," Alice points out. "Like, I don't want wish powers to have wish powers, I want wish powers so I can hurt myself in creative ways and not end up in the hospital for it. The part where you end up sleeping on a hoard of hexes like a sexy dragon is just a bonus."

[self_composed]

Bella giggles helplessly at this mental image. "Okay," she manages.

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice grins back at her.

[self_composed]

"I wish it said what was in the stash. I was hoping the cipher would say, but I guess not. Maybe he expected to go back to it and add or remove coins a few times between writing this book and his death."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Oh, well. We'll find out tomorrow, right?"

[self_composed]

"Assuming we find it, yeah. Your map is really good, but it covers a wide area and the point of the X probably handles a good few hundred square feet. Maybe it'll be obvious when we get there," she shrugs. "Or a square can make it glow or something."

[edgeofyourseat]

He finds himself, just for a second, looking forward to the possibility that they might need another pentagon to get into the stash.

Then he decides that that's not what he really wants.

"Or you'll fall down another hole," he says instead. "Hopefully not one that's like a hundred feet deep."

[self_composed]

"Oh, that's possible too," Bella agrees. "Elias did definitely go to a lot of trouble to make all this only go to a descendant."

[edgeofyourseat]

"...I feel like there's a joke in there about descendants falling down holes..."

[self_composed]

"I'm not seeing it," says Bella.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Descending," says Alice, and makes an appropriate hand motion.

[self_composed]

"A-ha. Cute." She chuckles. "I wonder which side of the family I'm descended from him through? Both my parents are from here, but all the grandparents have died or retired elsewhere, now..."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Not a clue. Can you find out?"

[self_composed]

"I guess. People who do genealogy as a hobby probably have something to do besides quiz their elderly relatives. But I kind of suspect that if this house - and therefore its secret passage - was here long enough ago that Elias was still writing the way he did, then he was living an unconventional and magic-assisted lifestyle. He may not appear in resources like that. I suppose I could just see if I can find any Frobishers."

[edgeofyourseat]

"It's not exactly a dime-a-dozen name," he agrees.