thaumobabble | cotton candy

In some ways, Bella does a lot, very quickly; and in other ways she does almost nothing at all.

She does not have to be secretive - she has no enemies, her world is accustomed to the introduction of strange wonders and will not fall apart with any revelation. She revives a large number of dead people - although none of Marianne's direct ancestors - and sends them home to surprised but happy families. She renders a larger number of people torchable. She sends letters to the monarchs of neighboring realms indicating that she is available to help with any unusual difficulties in which they may find themselves, and that she would appreciate introductions to their farther-flung neighbors. That is the "a lot".

But her world is made of cotton candy, and she has no intention of dumping a bucket of water on it in the hopes of rinsing off small amounts of dust. She is not usurping her mother-in-law, she is not conquering miscellaneous other kingdoms, she is not ridding the world of all its annoying but ultimately not mean pitfalls and hazards. (She does make it a condition of rendering dragons torchable that they must not eat anyone except trespassing Orthodox wizards.) She is mostly staying at home with her wives and her daughters, reading Rose's books, chattering endlessly with Kanim about all the exciting experiments they'll conduct with the new forms of magic available.

When Jane goes down, Bella has to make sheepish announcements that her resurrection powers turned out to be impermanent; she hopes they will return but can offer no timetable.

Meanwhile, news of one specific resurrection (Howard's) has spread far and wide.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

pythbox

Some months after Jane goes down, Queen Marianne mentions over tea with her daughters and daughter-in-law,

"The Duchess of Toure-on-Marsh has just sent us a letter saying she has twin children just about the princesses' age, and she was wondering if we would like to introduce them."

Edited Date: 2013-06-18 08:56 pm (UTC)

From:

thaumobabble

"That sounds like a fine idea to me," says Bella.

From:

allthebrightest

"Yeah, sure!" says Tony.

From:

calendarofcrime

Sherlock smiles.

From:

pythbox

"All right," says Marianne. "I'll write back."

From:

thaumobabble

After tea, Bella informs the children that they'll be getting visitors soon from Toure-on-Marsh.

From:

carillons

"Where's that?" wonders Tanalin.

From:

thaumobabble

"It's a little past Sathem-by-the-Mountains, where Kanim is from. I can show you on a map if you'd like."

From:

carillons

"Yeah!"

From:

thaumobabble

Bella conjures up a political map of the continent. The Enchanted forest is geographically enormous - if variable around the edges and not densely populated - and takes up about a third of it; then here are the Mountains of Morning, and here are a lot of little kingdoms including -

"Toure-on-Marsh," says Bella, pointing.

From:

campanas

"It's little!" coos Kiawen.

From:

thaumobabble

"It has a bunch of people in it, though," says Bella.

From:

carillons

"Are they teeny tiny people?" giggles Tanalin.

From:

campanas

"Teeny people!" cries Kiawen. "Elves. Smaller! Double-elves, so high!" She holds a hand at her own knee level.

From:

thaumobabble

"Ordinary-sized people," laughs Bella. "They just live close together in cities, instead of all spread out like in the Enchanted Forest."

From:

carillons

Tanalin giggles some more.

From:

campanas

"But what do they do when they want to be alone?"

From:

thaumobabble

"They still have their own rooms per person and houses per family," says Bella. "The houses are just right next to each other."

From:

carillons

"Who's visiting?"

From:

thaumobabble

"Duchess Kiria is going to bring her children to meet you. They're twins - regular ones - and about your age."

From:

campanas

"Are they nice? I only like nice people," says Carinna.

From:

thaumobabble

"You'll have to decide for yourself if they are nice enough for you," says Bella.

From:

campanas

"I bet they are," says Kiawen optimistically.

Kiawen is so optimistic that she's out in front of the castle, playing with Cricket, when the visitors arrive, instead of waiting for them to knock.

From:

longdistancebells

The visitors are a shortish red-haired man with black-rimmed spectacles and his two shortish red-haired children, one wearing a blue dress and the other a green tunic.

"Hello!" the man says cheerfully. "Are you by any chance a princess?"