cheated

[mute_pen]

The castle is livable indefinitely. Etty flies over the space around it, but she's not as fast as the Baron was in his owl form, and she can't fly for very long if she's hungry and can pack nothing if she travels as a swan; she doesn't range farther than she can travel in a half-day, and she doesn't find Astgabels or anyone who knows where it is. (Not many people are willing to talk to a girl in a feather dress from out of nowhere, but a few are.) She flies home to Nona after each failed journey. They feast on what appears on the dining table. They snuggle. They pick through the library. Etty writes her thoughts. They sleep, curled up together in Nona's bed.

One morning they wake up together and are lying there in comfortable silence when Etty scoots up and kisses Nona.

Comments

[mute_pen]

"Celo?" asks Etty quizzically.

[growcrooked]

"Celo's a nymph," Nona explains. "He's from a different world. They have a lot more magic there, and all kinds of horrible things but some that sound pretty nice, and nymphs are a kind of person that comes out of a field of plants and has to have sex with men a lot or they'll die. But Celo says me and him are a lot like each other, and I think he's right. I think he's that other world's version of me."

[mute_pen]

That's a lot to take in.

"...Oh. That's... really interesting actually," says Etty. "...What else do you have in common, is he - okay?"

[growcrooked]

"He's... more okay than me," says Nona. "He's been away from his - it wasn't his father, he doesn't have one, but his - person like that - for way longer. But he had a lot of the same not-okay stuff happen."

[mute_pen]

Etty shivers. "Okay. Why are so few people in there wearing clothes?"

[growcrooked]

"There's some kind of thing happening," Nona says vaguely. "Celo said it'd been going on for a few hours already when he got here, and that was a few hours ago. He likes it because it means he blends in more; he can't wear clothes because his mother's a goddess and she said nymphs aren't allowed."

[mute_pen]

"His mother's a goddess? And - he had a person like the Baron, anyway?"

[growcrooked]

"It's complicated," says Nona.

[pythbox]

A naked man of about Nona's apparent age, with a vaguely Nona-ish face and long curly vaguely Nona-ish hair, arrives at the door. He is carrying two large mugs, one of which he hands to Nona; then he kisses her familiarly on the cheek.

"Hi!" he says to Etty. "You must be Etty! I'm Celo."

[mute_pen]

Etty nods. "That's me. Hello."

[pythbox]

"Nice to meet you," he says. "Wow, yeah, you're definitely another one of Bella. You wanna come in? I need the door so I can go to my world and get the person I know who I think is one of you."

[mute_pen]

"...There's more of me?" Etty steps inside, tucking herself under Nona's arm. "Yes, please - I'd like to meet - her? Is it a her?"

[pythbox]

"Yeah, her name's Bella," he says. He closes the door and opens it again, and on the other side is a hallway; he leeeeeeeeeeans as far out as he can, looking at another door a short distance down the hall. "Bella! Hey! You in? I found a thing!"

[subtly_artistic]

I love how you're so specific. What is it?

[pythbox]

It's a - look, just come here, he laughs. You'll like it, I promise.

[subtly_artistic]

All right, all right. Up she gets, and out of her room, and, "Kheez!"

[mute_pen]

"...Hi."

[pythbox]

Celo beckons, grinning. "C'mon in! Can't hold the door forever, it's rude and stuff."

[subtly_artistic]

"What in the screaming abyss is this place?"

[mute_pen]

"I don't know. Before the door opened on part of our castle."

[subtly_artistic]

"You have a castle?"

[mute_pen]

"...Yes. But you wouldn't want it the way we got it."

[pythbox]

Celo shuts the door behind Bella.

"Should I go get more hot chocolate?" he wonders. "Anybody want some?"

[mute_pen]

"What is hot chocolate?"

[subtly_artistic]

Bella blinks at her. "Yeah, hot chocolates for us too."