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]

"You're a scholar?"

[subtly_artistic]

"...I think calling myself a scholar would suggest it's less common than it is to go to school where I'm from. I'm a student. I'm going to be a mental healer." She pauses, peering at Etty. "I... haven't taken any classes on mental healing yet, but you seem to be not in great shape, and if we're as alike as we look, maybe I could do something?"

[mute_pen]

"...That would depend on what you were going to do."

[subtly_artistic]

"Talk to you. Look at anything you wanted to show me."

[growcrooked]

Nona hugs Etty some more.

[pythbox]

Celo comes back with another pair of mugs. He hands one to Bella and one to Etty.

[subtly_artistic]

Slurp.

[mute_pen]

Sip?

Blink blink.

"This is delicious."

[pythbox]

"I know!" says Celo, beaming. "I love this place."

[mute_pen]

"It is such a strange place. What is it?"

[pythbox]

"I'm not really sure," says Celo. "Some kind of interplanar bar or something. I tried to ask a couple people but mostly they're interested in the party, and I like the party too, so I didn't pester anyone about it."

[subtly_artistic]

"An interplanar bar. I guess stranger things have happened. It just appeared to you?"

[pythbox]

"Yeah! And then I saw her coming out of the door," he gestures to Nona, "and - I don't know, does she look like me to you? She looks like me to me. She looks a lot like me. And we compared histories and she's pretty much me, you know, accounting for species and stuff."

[subtly_artistic]

"She looks like you could be siblings," decides Bella after a long look at both faces. "Awfully similar siblings." She turns to Etty. "We should compare life histories."

[mute_pen]

"All right. I can't remember my name, but I can remember everything else."

[subtly_artistic]

Bella goes first. Parents, little town in Blackwater, subtle artistry, school, introspection, her questions -

[mute_pen]

"Our questions," inserts Etty when she hears them.

[growcrooked]

Celo and Nona simultaneously giggle.

[subtly_artistic]

Heh. And school and her inauspicious first meeting with Celo and the business with the elves and what she's at liberty to share about the business with Callahan. That's pretty much the story of her life.

[mute_pen]

Etty's story is shorter and less pleasant. Parents, unremarkable upbringing, figuring out that she only yearned after women and not men, getting picked up by a giant owl and cursed, meeting Nona, turning into a swan (she demonstrates), the hurt and the violation and the terms of his immortality and their ultimate victory. Poking around at sorcery, flying over the countryside looking for home.

[subtly_artistic]

Bella hugs her, partway through this recitation.

[growcrooked]

Nona hugs her as soon as Bella has stopped.

[pythbox]

"I could hug you too," says Celo.

[mute_pen]

Etty's reaction to this offer is silent but extremely dubious.

[subtly_artistic]

"No," translates Bella.