cake and ice cream

[self_composed]

Bella finds Milliways next, too, on New Year's Day, and calls in Alice (he's not coming to Goldenworld even if they find a person who can take them there, but he might find someone interesting to talk to in the bar) and also Lazarus. She mentions the door to Libby, too, in case she and/or her wolf want to take an excursion and see if his friends and family back home can be visited.

Comments

[her_imperial_radiance]

Addy boops Lazarus's nose and frowns at him. "I can tell which ones were your Bella," she says finally. "I think that's only because I know mine reasonably well."

"I can't tell anything like that at all, but then, I don't know either Bella particularly well," says Eleazar, peering intently. He glances at Bella. "Oh. You are more paranoid and polyglottal with a smattering of other talents to boot."

[nonbird]

"Yes," says Lazarus. "She's rather spectacular, isn't she?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"That's a word for it," says Eleazar.

"Bella is shiny," says Addy cheerfully.

[nonbird]

"Shiny is also a word for it," says Lazarus.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Is Kate around?" Addy asks.

"Hunting with Garrett. She'll be back soon," says Eleazar.

"Let's wait for her," declares Addy. "But while we're waiting..." She pokes Lazarus in the chest. "I want you to see if you can see her from far away. I bet you can. If you try."

[nonbird]

Lazarus sighs, and closes his eyes.

"...That's odd," he says after a moment, frowning a little. "That's... very odd."

He turns in circles for a few moments, eyes still closed.

Then, tentatively, he points.

"Is that your sparkly friend?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

Addy squints in that direction. "Yes! Yes, that looks like her. How lovely. Everything's so pretty the way you look at it. Eleazar gets no aesthetics at all."

Eleazar huffs a long-suffering sigh.

[nonbird]

Lazarus flaps his hand at her in mild disapproval, still frowning to himself.

He turns a few more circles, counterclockwise this time.

Then he says, "And there's Chris and Libby! And your empress and everyone!" Opening his eyes, he adds, "Your world is so blank, it's like looking through vacuum."

[her_imperial_radiance]

Addy beams and updates her copy of her power and shuts her eyes and twirls. "Oh-oh-oh you should turn into a vampire so I can borrow one of your toes," she sings.

[nonbird]

"No," he says quellingly.

"What I am going to do is find a way to make a magical object that will register a sympathetic connection for the purposes of your power, the way I know I can for mine. And then you can have my power around at your convenience without borrowing any of my parts."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"That's even better! Toes I have to give back or they die," Addy says cheerfully.

[nonbird]

"Let's just stop talking about toes," says Lazarus. "And weren't we going to go compare empresses?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"We were!"

[self_composed]

Bella shrugs and teleports them to the throne room.

[nonbird]

"Hi!" says Lazarus. "See, Addy, what'd I tell you about the—" and he's off into multilingual sensory metaphors.

[self_composed]

"They're comparing our powers," Bella explains to her counterpart.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"That makes sense," says Golden Bella. "We've collected some more technological specs for you. Alice brought them in earlier from wherever they were being kept." She hands them over. "Trade you for three stars and five hexes."

[self_composed]

"You want to wish on them yourself? Fair enough," says Bella. She quietly declaws the stars and hands over the eight coins. "Don't let Addy touch them. I don't know what would happen."

[nonbird]

"—but what really gets me is the silence here," he says, interrupting himself in the middle of talking about Golden Bella's power extensions. "I honestly think I could distinguish every witch on this planet if I had the time and the detail range. It's so much clearer than back home. I wouldn't have thought we had magical background noise before, but the difference is like looking through air and then looking through vacuum."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"So tell me about the 'air'," says Addy.

[nonbird]

"It's air," he says. "Stand on the Moon and describe the visual quality of Earth's atmosphere. In other words, I'll have plenty to tell you after I've gone back home and studied it for a while."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"We don't have a moon base," Addy says exasperatedly. "It's on the agenda for later."

[nonbird]

"That was a hypothetical instruction."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"At any rate, I suppose you'll just have to come back, then," says Addy.

[nonbird]

"I'm planning to!"