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]

Yes.

And then, very shortly, no.

[self_composed]

"Up we go again?" Bella asks. She doubts that rules about asking to be excused apply when Mr. Hammond is gone.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Sure!" says Alice. "Bye guys!"

With a general wave, he departs the table. "Have fun," Mrs. Hammond calls after them, to a snort from Hilary.

[self_composed]

Bella snickers. And goes up the stairs.

Back in the privacy of Alice's room, Bella says, "I shouldn't stay very late. Charlie'll worry. But let's think if there are any more urgent pentagon-level things to do besides the necklace. And..." She takes off one of her shoes and peels back her sock, revealing accumulated triangles. She puts them with the others.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Nice," says Alice, perching on a corner of his bed. "Okay, so what kind of stuff would be urgent?"

[self_composed]

"Well, for example," Bella says, "it might turn out that the cipher is really complicated and takes me weeks to crack, or heavy-duty magic that I'm not currently ready to generate. You might want the pentagon for emergencies during that time. I'll give you some squares and triangles either way. In case you need them," she adds softly.

[edgeofyourseat]

That... is way more unexpected than it should have been.

Alice smiles.

"Thanks."

[self_composed]

"How long is he going to be gone?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"'Bout a week."

[self_composed]

"Mkay." Bella closes her eyes. "I wonder if the triangles can make any amount of progress on the cipher? If so I can probably do the whole thing with a pair of tweezers pulling out leg hairs or something. I honestly know nothing about cryptanalysis." She picks up one of the triangles that she brought into existence near her foot, and pulls out Elias's book and turns to the cipher/map.

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice watches curiously.

[self_composed]

Bella tries a series of wishes regarding the cipher on her triangle. Wishes for this letter to be decrypted - wishes for the cipher key - wishes for a hint, a clue, for a single pixel of same to appear on the page.

The triangle stays put.

"So much for that." She puts it away and takes out a square.

[edgeofyourseat]

"I wonder if it's even solvable," says Alice. "...I wonder if you could use a wish to check. How big a thing is the answer to a question?"

[self_composed]

Bella flips to Helpful Charts. "I'd be really surprised if he went to all this trouble to lie to someone he'd never meet," Bella says. "Hmmm... all the purely information based stuff that's listed is pentagon and up. Vocabulary words for magically acquired languages, and whatnot." She tosses the square into the air, and catches it. "What seems like a good test question? What do you want to know?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"I dunno," he says. "Why not just ask it that one and see what happens?"

[self_composed]

"You want me to test the square's information gathering powers by asking it if it has any?" Bella asks.

[edgeofyourseat]

"No, but that's awesome and you totally should!"

[self_composed]

Bella laughs. She tries it.

The square continues to exist.

"Argh."

[edgeofyourseat]

"So much for that," he says, but he's laughing.

[self_composed]

"A pentagon ought to be able to give me permanent cryptanalysis expertise," Bella reasons. "Maybe the square can do a temporary version of the same thing, even if it can't answer direct questions." She tries this.

The square disappears, and she blinks, and dives for her notebook. "I have no idea how long this lasts - pen, pen - where's a - there -" She finds a pen and starts flicking her eyes rapidly back and forth between cipher symbols and her growing list of notes.

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice shuts up and watches.

...It's really cool.

[self_composed]

Bella is muttering to herself rather madly. "Not enough for good frequency analysis - original spacing? Is it English-based, even? Numerical symbols..."

[edgeofyourseat]

It is really cool. Alice is not even sure what he's feeling right now, but he likes it.

[self_composed]

The temporary skill wears off before Bella has even transcribed the entire alphabet of the cipher. Her pen stutters to a halt.

"Okay," she says, clearly not liking the disappearance of the skill. "So. If nothing else, there's that. I can afford to blow the pentagon on the necklace because I don't need a pentagon in particular for the cipher..." She looks at her notes. "Even if it would be more efficient that way."

[edgeofyourseat]

"I dunno," he says. "One pentagon from me would be more efficient than a shitload of squares, but you are obviously not into the idea of breaking your own leg and you seem to make squares pretty easily, so it kinda seems like they're more... fuck, what's the word... cost-effective. If all you wanna do is read that one map."