extradimensional space

[thaumobabble]

Here is a house.

It is pretty and trim and green-and-cream and really ought not to be able to hold itself up like that, and yet here it is, somehow defying the laws of architecture. It is surrounded by a neatly bordered garden of ornamental and useful plants of all sorts: here vegetables, there herbs, there spell components, there rows of flowers.

There is a sign out front. It says only: Magic. Not, Beware, Magic or Magic Emporium or anything like that. Just: Magic.

Sitting on top of this sign is a cream cat with smoke-dark points of color on each paw, his ears, and his face and tail.

All in all, you could be forgiven for thinking that a witch lives here.

Comments

[allthebrightest]

"I don't know if there's a deadline like that," says Tony. "I don't know if this quest is even going to work! If there were any princes around here who fit the bill, I would've married one already and saved everybody the trouble!"

[thaumobabble]

Bella chews her lip. "I don't already have a window that does husbands. It's possible I could invent one and then you wouldn't have this problem," she offers softly.

[allthebrightest]

"...How do your windows work, anyway?"

[thaumobabble]

"Divinatory windows in general are witchcraft. They're like mirrors, but they connect to objects in the environment that meet certain parameters instead of to other mirrors."

[allthebrightest]

"So you could make a window that shows me the nearest person I could marry who'd do a good job of ruling the country and give me some kids to pass it on to?"

[thaumobabble]

"I don't think I'd insert a parameter like nearest - although I could include only a limited set of locations - and I'd have to be more specific about what doing a good job of ruling the country means and I'd need to know more about who you could tolerate well enough to marry, but yes, basically."

[allthebrightest]

"I'd marry you, if you were a prince," sighs Tony.

[thaumobabble]

"I'm not a prince. I'm not either of the component features I'd have to be to be a prince," says Bella.

[allthebrightest]

"Technically you don't have to be royal," says Tony, "our fire-witch great-and-so-on-grandma wasn't, she just spent some time as a dragon's princess and called it good..."

[thaumobabble]

"I don't think I want to move in with Kexan and do domestic chores for a year to qualify. No offense."

[allthebrightest]

"But that can't be the only way, right?"

[thaumobabble]

"The other way to become a princess is to marry royalty, which, problematically, would see me already married to some royalty," Bella points out.

[calendarofcrime]

"Hm," says Sherlock.

[thaumobabble]

Bella blinks. And looks at Sherlock. And blinks again and tilts her head.

[calendarofcrime]

"What," says Sherlock, "is your opinion of politics, again?"

[thaumobabble]

"I said it sounds fascinating and if I couldn't be a magician I'd probably go somewhere that would let me try it and do so," Bella says slowly.

[calendarofcrime]

"There are two princesses available," Sherlock observes.

[thaumobabble]

"Ye-e-es. What are you thinking here, help me out, I don't know the details of princess rules except in a vague sense that I learned in another country."

[calendarofcrime]

"You only need to be preexisting royalty in order to become a co-ruler of the kingdom," she says. "Marrying a person of royal descent makes you a princess in a sort of junior sense, from which point, if you went on to marry another, you could one day become a queen."

[allthebrightest]

"Whoa," says Tony, staring at Sherlock epiphanatically. "Whoa, hey, wait, you like her."

[thaumobabble]

Bella is surprised!

Also contemplatively peering at Sherlock, now.

[calendarofcrime]

She looks down at her hands and smiles slightly.

[thaumobabble]

"What is the current queen likely to think of this notion?" Bella asks. "Assuming it is a real notion and not an idle notion."

[calendarofcrime]

"She is likely to have concerns about the succession," says Sherlock. "And she will want to discuss your political aspirations in great depth."

[thaumobabble]

"Okay. Suppose I'm wrong about successiony things being a minor technical issue. I won't know for sure until I try and I won't try until it'd be a good idea for me to succeed. Then what?"