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

[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."

[subtly_artistic]

"I don't know. It also seems like a strange coincidence that you have Nona who's like Celo and Celo knows me."

[growcrooked]

"Celo said it seems to him like you and him are connected in some sort of Fate-ish kind of way," Nona offers.

[subtly_artistic]

"One of his teachers said something that made it sound like she thinks so. Celo," she adds, aloud and also relaying telepathically, almost as though he were there, "have you got any other reason to think so?"

[pythbox]

If Callahan thinks something's up, then something is probably up, he says. Even if she's wrong about exactly what or what it means.

[subtly_artistic]

Bella relays this, and then, "But we don't know anything beyond that."

[mute_pen]

"Do you have guesses?"

[subtly_artistic]

"Celo thinks she expects us to kill a god," offers Bella.

[growcrooked]

"Are you going to?" wonders Nona.

[subtly_artistic]

"No! I'd get myself killed, or worse. Hubris is a bad idea."

[mute_pen]

"Are they doing a good job, then? The gods you have?"

[subtly_artistic]

"Hubris is a bad idea," repeats Bella firmly.

[growcrooked]

"Okay," says Nona.

[subtly_artistic]

"Is it not a bad idea where you come from?" Bella asks Etty tentatively.

[mute_pen]

"There are churches, and people talk about God - only the one - smiting people, sometimes, but I don't think he exists, because people say he's all-powerful and all-knowing and all-good," shrugs Etty. "I don't think there's anything other than other people to punish hubris. But if it's so dangerous where you're from maybe I shouldn't invite you back with us to help me do things with your magic. In case hubris being a bad idea follows you there."

[growcrooked]

"I don't want any more gods than the one we probably haven't got," Nona confirms. "It seems like they'd just get in the way."

[subtly_artistic]

"Well -" Bella's speaking very carefully now. "They are the source of divine magic. Celo can heal because of his mother, even if she isn't attentively intervening each time. And no drinking blood is necessary."