a city and a mint who sleep very little between them

[self_composed]

Bella bikes to the airport on Friday. She gets a little reading done on her flight, then sleeps-on-purpose through the remainder of the trip, waking up precisely when the plane touches down. One nice bonus that she didn't even explicitly build into the power is that she can sleep at will in virtually any position; she doesn't have to get comfy if that's not convenient.

She steps off the plane, backpack full of her things over her shoulders, and stalks into the halls of LaGuardia, eyes peeled for Libby.

Comments

[prima_sequentem]

"Yes," says Libby. "Ew. Exactly."

[nonbird]

[Would he be miserable...? Well, yes, I guess he would.]

[self_composed]

"I will be careful," Bella repeats.

[Of course he would.]

[nonbird]

[Lucky for him it can't happen, I guess.]

[prima_sequentem]

"I believe you'll be careful. I don't believe you're going to spot all the skull collectors."

[self_composed]

"How many skull collectors do you believe there to be?"

[prima_sequentem]

"When it comes to giving out minting powers, I don't like to play the odds."

[self_composed]

"Why was there anything for me to find last winter, then? Why hadn't you taken care of that one way or another?"

[prima_sequentem]

"Unfortunately, I don't have infinite magic to spend on the task of locating and cracking open hidden coin stashes," she says. "Or I would be."

[self_composed]

"Mm," Bella muses.

Boy, is Libby's head ever going to explode if she gets a look at Bella's bandolier, which now loops via magic through an extra several feet in the treasure chest tucked away in the lair.

Pause.

"Look, we've established that I am very curious and very impatient and probably not going to blow up the world. Is there any chance I can buy answers to my questions with coins?"

[prima_sequentem]

"...Maybe," says Libby. "I'm reluctant to say yes unequivocally. There are questions I'm refusing to answer on general principle, and questions I'm refusing to answer on very specific principle, if you see the difference."

[self_composed]

"If you run short of coins," Bella says, "consider issuing me a price list. Although my curiosity doesn't swamp my understanding of game theory and I won't let you establish any precedents that leave me in a permanently terrible bargaining position."

[prima_sequentem]

"Sure," says Libby. "Anything I'd be tempted to price just out of reach, I probably shouldn't be selling, anyway."

[self_composed]

Bella nods. "I didn't think that would escape you or I wouldn't have even brought it up."

[prima_sequentem]

"Well, I'm glad we seem to be taking each other seriously."

[self_composed]

Bella's silent for a moment, then says, "You can give out my email address to any magic folks who might want it, by the by."

[prima_sequentem]

"Noted."

[self_composed]

"To what extent do I still need to be concerned about you spying on me and my friend - or trying?" Bella inquires.

[prima_sequentem]

"If I said 'not at all', would you believe me?"

[self_composed]

"I would not equate your words with the whistling of the wind," Bella says. "But I wouldn't take it on faith that you were telling me the absolute truth either. It'd be some information, but certainly no guarantee."

[prima_sequentem]

"My previous reason for spying on you was to determine how dangerous you are," she says. "I don't have a new one."

[self_composed]

"See, that's even better than just telling me 'no'," Bella says. "Especially since you conspicuously didn't mention whether you have a reason to spy on my friend."

[prima_sequentem]

"Is your friend dangerous?"

[self_composed]

"So long as I am around," Bella says, "no. And I have no plans to stop being around."

[prima_sequentem]

"Then I don't need to spy on them, do I?"