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

[pythbox]

"That is cute," Icarin announces.

[campanas]

Carinna giggles. "If I hadn't come along then Tony couldn't have married Bella. Since there had to be heirs, since Grandma wasn't immortal then."

[pythbox]

"Your grandma's immortal?" says Icarin.

[campanas]

"Yeah. And Grandpa and all my moms and me and my sisters and Cricket and Kanim and some other people, too. That's some of the extra fancy magic Bella got. She can immortal people."

[pythbox]

"She should immortal my parents!" asserts Icarin.

[campanas]

"They should ask her, then, she probably will," says Carinna.

[pythbox]

"I should go find my dad and tell him to! Otherwise he might not think of it," says Icarin.

[campanas]

"Oh. Okay. Do you want me to come with?" asks Carinna.

[pythbox]

"Yeah," he says. "Otherwise I might get lost. I don't know your castle very well yet."

[campanas]

"Some of the doors open to more than one place, because magic," says Carinna, hopping to her feet and leading him down to where she expects guests to be lingering.

She pauses at the doorway, peeping out at the strangers.

[pythbox]

Icarin locates his father, marches up to him, and says, "You should ask Princess Bella to immortal you!"

[longdistancebells]

"All right," Ian says agreeably. "Where is Princess Bella?"

[campanas]

"Probably in one of the stacked rooms," says Kiawen. "The library or her workshop or something."

[longdistancebells]

"And how would I go about finding her?"

[campanas]

"There is the brainphone!" says Carinna. "Then she can just come here. I almost forgot it." And she closes her eyes and tilts her head and summons Bella.

[thaumobabble]

Pop. "What is it?" Bella inquires. "Oh! You're here! I didn't realize. Hello, it's nice to meet you, I'm Bella."

[longdistancebells]

"Hello, Bella! I'm Ian!" says Ian. "And this is Icarin and that's Valeria and I've just been told," he ruffles his son's hair, "that I should ask you to immortal me."

[thaumobabble]

"Oh!" laughs Bella. "Let's see - is there any reason you or I might regret that? It's very permanent."

[longdistancebells]

"Well, I don't know, is there? How does it work?"

[thaumobabble]

"Once I've done it, if you would die for some reason, instead you reset on the spot," says Bella. "It also tends to pull appearances towards mid-twenties - for humans - but it's compatible with normal growing for people younger than that." She scritches Carinna's head.

[longdistancebells]

"Well, if it works for you and your family, I don't see any reason not to want it for me and mine," he shrugs.

[thaumobabble]

"That's fair. Will you want me to visit the Duchess and cover her as well?"

[longdistancebells]

"That would be very nice of you!"

[thaumobabble]

"Okay then." She peers at Valeria and Icarin. "D'you two want to live forever?"

[pythbox]

"Yes please!" says Icarin.

"Sure!" says Valeria.