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

[pythbox]

Ask me privately if I'd got anything off her, and if I hadn't, which I pretty much didn't, lead with that. It's nicer that way.

[subtly_artistic]

Okay. If we meet any - more of me - then I'll do that. I didn't realize you were that accomplished at squinting.

[pythbox]

I've been getting better, I just don't run and brag to you about it every time I manage not to catch somebody, he says.

[subtly_artistic]

Understood. Pause. I wouldn't expect her to "look" that much like me the way you said she did. I mean, we're the same, but she's gay and traumatized and I'm straight and not-traumatized, are those not relatively overwhelming features?

[pythbox]

I told you before you're too hung up on the information part, didn't I? There's a lot more to it than just - features, like that. Stuff that doesn't tell me anything directly, and doesn't really turn into words. And on that level you're almost the same. It's like... if you saw somebody you knew, and then you saw them again and they'd been beat up pretty bad and they were wearing totally different clothes and had different-coloured hair, you'd still recognize them, wouldn't you? It's a little like that.

[subtly_artistic]

Huh.

Meanwhile, Etty's talking about what it's like to fly.

D'you want me to relay what we're talking about to you?

[pythbox]

Sure.

[subtly_artistic]

Bella sets herself up as a relay. "I'll bounce everything we're saying to Celo," she informs her alt and Nona.

[growcrooked]

"How's that work?" she says curiously. "I don't think your magic is the same as ours at all. There's less - drinking blood and peeing on things, from what I've heard."

[subtly_artistic]

"...Ew? The subtle arts aren't like that. Some of the darker arcana might be, I guess, but I'm only a dabbler in arcane magic. I know nothing about divine magic to speak of - well, except common knowledge for my world, which I guess might be more than you have - but I don't think that involves any of that. My subtle arts are just a matter of me being able to focus my mind in certain ways that tend to produce effects in the world. Usually in minds, mine or others' - it's pretty trivial for me to talk to people mind-to-mind from a reasonable distance - but I have a little bit of telekinetic potential that I'm working on training, too."

[mute_pen]

"That sounds much different from what we have."

[growcrooked]

"Yeah, we have to drink blood and pee on things and similar," says Nona. "And by we I mean I." She gives Etty's hand an affectionate squeeze. "And we don't have all different kinds of magic like that, and I don't think we have anything that'll let you have a conversation with someone's mind - do we, Etty?"

[mute_pen]

Etty shakes her head. "Not that I've found. It's all about - material objects, mostly, and a few curses that affect the mind like the one I was under."

[subtly_artistic]

"Do you want me to see if I can find your name in there somewhere?" offers Bella.

[mute_pen]

"I'm pretty used to 'Etty', now, but I'd like to know who I used to be," says Etty.

[subtly_artistic]

"Okay. I'll avoid looking at anything else in enough detail to learn the contents."

[growcrooked]

Nona hugs Etty. It just seems like the thing to do.

[mute_pen]

Etty leans on Nona and waits for Bella to work her magic.

[subtly_artistic]

"I can't find any memories of your actual name," Bella reports eventually, "but I can find the residue of what was blocked off when the curse was still active. It forbade you to use any name besides Odette - which you got partly around with the nickname - and forbade you to know the existence of the name Isabel, but you should be able to re-learn it now."

[mute_pen]

"It's like yours," observes Etty. "I think I'll just go on being called Etty. Otherwise it would be confusing, and besides, 'Isabel' doesn't feel like mine anymore."

[growcrooked]

"It's pretty," says Nona.

[subtly_artistic]

"I wonder why they're so similar but not exactly the same."

[mute_pen]

"Isabella like your name sounds like a foreign sort of name to me. Isabel is Diotalandish," suggests Etty.

[growcrooked]

Nona corroborates this with a nod.

[mute_pen]

"It is interesting how we are so alike, but come from such different worlds," says Etty. "I wonder if everyone has a match."