cotton candy

[thaumobabble]

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.

Comments

[campanas]

"I'm not even a bit terrified. Hello, it's nice to meet you! Carinna says I should find out if you are nice so she can stay away if you are not nice," says Kiawen. "She only likes nice people."

[longdistancebells]

"I'm very nice," Ian assures her. "My wife tells me so all the time."

"I don't know if I'm nice," Icarin says thoughtfully. "How do you tell?"

Valeria cackles.

[campanas]

"I'm not sure!" muses Kiawen. "But Carinna said I had to find out. She's very sensitive," she explains. "Cricket, go get Tanalin pretty please and she can help?"

"Mow," says Cricket, and he lopes castleward.

[allthebrightest]

It turns out that Tanalin is in the forge with Tony and Howard, watching them argue excitedly about flying armour. Tony is doing most of the talking.

[alicornucopia]

Cricket cannot make himself understood to anyone in the room, but he can bat expressively at Tanalin's elbow with a paw.

[carillons]

"Hi, Cricket!" says Tanalin. "Do you want to show me something?"

[alicornucopia]

"Mew." He turns and leads her out to the front part of the palace grounds, where are visitors and Carinna.

[campanas]

"This one is Tanalin!" says Kiawen. "I won't make you guess because you heard me tell Cricket."

[carillons]

"Hi!" says Tanalin. "Are you the people from the tiny kingdom?"

[longdistancebells]

"Almost!" says Ian. "We're the people from the tiny duchy. I'm Ian, and this is Icarin and that's Valeria."

"Hi," says Icarin shyly.

"Hi!" says Valeria.

[campanas]

"Do you think they're nice?" Kiawen asks Tanalin. "I don't know how to tell but Carinna wanted us to make sure."

[carillons]

"I don't know how to tell either!" says Tanalin. "Maybe we should ask a mom."

[campanas]

"Yeah! Let's ask a mom. Which one, do you think? If there's a magic to learn about niceness I bet Bella knows it but maybe there isn't."

[carillons]

"Sherlock is good at finding stuff out!" says Tanalin. "But I don't know where she is, and I don't know where Bella is, and I do know where Tony is, she's in the forge with Grandpa Howard."

[campanas]

"Is she busy?"

[carillons]

"Maybe. She's not busy busy, she's not making stuff or anything."

[campanas]

"Okay. I'll go get her and you can stay here because I have been talking to these people who might be nice for longer," says Kiawen, and off she runs to the forge.

Cricket, meanwhile, investigates Valeria.

[pythbox]

"Hi, kitty!" says Valeria. "Cricket, right?"

[alicornucopia]

"Mow," agrees Cricket.

[campanas]

"Tonyyyy," says Kiawen when she gets to the forge.

[pythbox]

"I wanna pet you," Val declares, reaching for Cricket.

[allthebrightest]

"Hey, you," says Tony. "What's the occasion?"

[campanas]

"Carinna wanted us to make sure the people from Toure-on-Marsh were nice! But we don't know how to tell! Can you tell?"

[alicornucopia]

Cricket decides to permit petting.

[allthebrightest]

"I don't know!" says Tony. "But I'm not gonna find out just sitting here! Let's go meet the people."