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

[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."

[pythbox]

Petpetpet!

[alicornucopia]

Flop. Purr.

[campanas]

Kiawen leads her out to where the visitors and Tanalin and Cricket are.

[pythbox]

"You're fluffy!" Val tells Cricket. "I like you. 'Cause you're fluffy."

[allthebrightest]

"Well, she's making friends with Cricket, that's a plus," laughs Tony. "Hi! I'm Tony! You must be Duke Ian. Do you guys wanna come inside?"

[longdistancebells]

Ian glances at his son and says, "Yes. Yes we do."

[alicornucopia]

"Mrow," Cricket agrees.

[campanas]

"Okay," says Kiawen, and she runs in ahead of everyone to warn Carinna.

The girls are not really used to the brainphone being available yet.

[longdistancebells]

Ian collects his children and follows Tony into the castle.

[alicornucopia]

Cricket unhelpfully winds around Valeria's legs while she walks. It is a cat obligation.

[carillons]

Tanalin tags along, giggling.

[campanas]

Now they are inside the castle!

Kiawen peers at Valeria and Icarin, trying to see if they are nice or not.

[pythbox]

Valeria is doing her best not to step on Cricket. Icarin is doing his best to be visible to as few people as possible, which amounts to imitating Cricket with his father as the target instead of Valeria.