bewitched armor

[thaumobabble]

There are plenty of things to do. Bella orders a carpet to enchant so she can commute to and from Reformist Wizards efficiently and move house. She starts combing through the castle library to find background material on her Minor Technical Issue.

Sometimes she watches Sherlock cook.

Sometimes she watches Tony forge. (Nnnnf.)

Comments

[thaumobabble]

It is!

Bella decides to notify her of this development eventually, one evening when they are all snuggled up and Cricket has absented himself (this feature being essential, as he would be sure to comment if present).

"I'm falling in love with you," Bella announces comfortably. "I will probably be properly there in less than a week."

[calendarofcrime]

"That is good to know," says Sherlock.

[thaumobabble]

"I thought it would be. That is why I told you." Snuggle snuggle.

[calendarofcrime]

"Thank you."

Snuggle.

[thaumobabble]

"You're welcome."

Kisses.

[calendarofcrime]

Kisses! Excellent.

[thaumobabble]

Excellence is to be striven for at all times!

So are kisses!

Okay, maybe kisses only sometimes. But this time is one of those times!

[calendarofcrime]

This is an excellent time for kisses.

[allthebrightest]

So, Tony has been having some trouble with her flying armour.

She doesn't want it to come with a cape - she doesn't know why, she just doesn't feel capey. And she cannot for the life of her figure out how to get it to work without a cape.

So she starts going for walks, watching birds and thinking about air and metal. She sticks to the deep woods, when she remembers; they're as safe as it gets, for a member of the royal family who knows to be polite and friendly and never promise anything and always ask a squirrel.

She doesn't always remember.

And one afternoon, she doesn't come back from her walk.

[thaumobabble]

"Hey," says Bella, wandering into the kitchen where Sherlock is fixing dinner, "I haven't seen Tony all day, where is she?"

[calendarofcrime]

"Walking, ostensibly. I would expect her to be back by now, however."

[thaumobabble]

"Yeah, she's usually back well before dinner." Bella chews her lip. "...The room with all the enchanted windows is in that door I brought, I could go try to check on her."

[calendarofcrime]

"Do that, then."

[thaumobabble]

Bella goes up to her multiply-opening door.

She comes back to the kitchen with no visible wounds, but a few streaks of blood on her face. "My window exploded. Something happened."

[calendarofcrime]

Sherlock closes her eyes for a few seconds.

[thaumobabble]

"An explosion rather than search failure narrows it down, but not in a good way," mutters Bella, starting to pace.

[calendarofcrime]

"In what way, then?"

[thaumobabble]

"If the spell just failed that could mean I made the window wrong or addressed the window wrong or that Tony had secretly been made of soap bubbles all along, or something. If it explodes, that means there's copious amounts of hostile magic between my window and her."

[calendarofcrime]

"I see," says Sherlock.

She looks at dinner. She looks at Bella.

She walks out of the kitchen door and across the palace clearing into the trees.

[thaumobabble]

"Off," Bella mutters to the stove, and she follows. "We should find her but we should prepare - your armor, my armor - we should tell your mother -"

[calendarofcrime]

"First I am going to find out where she is," says Sherlock, and she keeps walking.

[thaumobabble]

"There is a large amount of hostile magic in the way is where she is! If you walk into it right now it could - Sherlock, it could kill you, I don't know what it is but that's definitely on the list of things it could be -" Bella's hurrying after her as fast as her moccasins allow.

[calendarofcrime]

"I did not say I would go to where she is," says Sherlock. "I said I would find it."

[thaumobabble]

"What makes you think you can do that without running into the great big wall of hostile magic? I know you're insanely good at finding things but nothing says the magic in question is closer to where she disappeared from than to here."

[calendarofcrime]

"I am not doing what you assume I am doing," says Sherlock, closing her eyes and running her fingers along invisible filaments in the air, "and I do not have time to explain what I am doing until after I have done it. It would be extremely helpful if you would fetch our armour in case we have need of it when I am done."