does not anymore work

[campanas]

Here, in a place where she is quite an unexpected sight, is:

an eight year old girl with brown-flecked white wings, looking dismayed and lost.

with Prime (Aestrix)

with Edie and Emily (Maggie)

with Gloria (Maggie)

with Gren (Rockeye)

Comments

[witchwatcher]

"No, I just... It's like you're carrying enough power to blow up the sun. It's intimidating."

Lytee comments, "If you're that strong, you can probably contain the Neuroi hive. End the war."

[beheld_beauty]

"We're very strong. It's what we do. What are the Neuroi?"

[witchwatcher]

"Giant, regenerating, crystalline red and black monsters that fire beams of heat at everything. They started appearing out of a giant hurricane that appeared over Ostmark thirty two years ago." She glances at the two children. "Things did not go well for the people of Ostmark. Or Greece. Or Karlsland."

[beheld_beauty]

"Well, if you'll take a Janegem home we'll be able to access the universe, and while we're not yet giving our full attention to worlds without native Bells - that's us - or other noted templates because there are only so many of us to go around, we can certainly handle major disasters like that. And attach your world to our shared afterlife so the people of Ostmark and Greece and Karsland can come back whenever the world is ready for them."

[witchwatcher]

Gren splutters. "There's an afterlife after all. A shared afterlife? Can. Can I see my brother?"

[jovahs_heiress]

"Almost certainly, unless he's different from the two of you in some unusual and relevant way. To connect your world to the afterlife - it isn't hooked up yet - we either need to make at least one of you immortal or bring you to the afterlife for its administrator to look at."

[witchwatcher]

Lytee immediately asks, "Is there a catch here?"

[jovahs_heiress]

"If under circumstances that would otherwise kill you, it will look like you catch fire; and then you'll reset to a healthy state. This can be inconvenient if you are in circumstances that won't stop trying to kill you. Past 'young adult', no aging unless you want us to special-case it. The process is totally irreversible - if you become tired of being alive the remedy is unconsciousness, not cessation."

[witchwatcher]

"Do it to me, please."

"Me too."

[beheld_beauty]

"Done."

[witchwatcher]

"...It's interestingly shaped. Very elegant, very, hm, adamant that we continue to exist. Thank you."

Lytee asks, "How sure are you that we want your staggeringly powerful selves in our world? I don't mean to insult you, but when you're dealing with things that affect entire planets..."

[jovahs_heiress]

"Well, we're very sure, but what would you like to see to arrange that you too can be sure?"

[witchwatcher]

"I can lie-detect for a little while, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't just nope me with all that ridiculous power. If you say you have good intentions, or at least intend to do no harm as you define it, that's plenty good enough for me. The torching is enough to convince me our standards of good and harm are close enough."

[jovahs_heiress]

"Our intentions are good and we do not mean any harm. But your lie detection may be thrown off by our mental shielding, which I'd rather not tamper with. We could probably find you someone with less heavily rated defenses if it's necessary."

[witchwatcher]

"Yeah, I'm not getting anything off you. And I don't have patience for mind games, you seem like good people, I'm sold."

Lytee stares at her "You can't be serious. They could be worse than Neuroi."

"Could be."

"Worse than Neuroi. Can you bring someone else in, please?"

[beheld_beauty]

"Our children are all as heavily warded as we are, my husband is... resting... hers is busy with politics... I'll get my apprentice."

Rose disappears.

[segreant]

"That's Luc," puts in the thirteen-year-old. "He's nice. But not very interesting. Don't tell him I said that."

[witchwatcher]

"A lot of people are nice but not very interesting. Sometimes I think I'm one. It's not that weird."

[jovahs_heiress]

"Anyway, assuming you want to let us our plan would be to have another Bell who can see some particularly useful things over to look at you, to make sure the world is Jane-compatible; send a Janegem there either with you or with one of our husbands' alts; scan the world for alts of ourselves and people we know; if there's a Bell, hand her copies of all our copiable magic and leave it to her; dispatch a Bell if you don't have one, which is unspecified, to lay down basic protections like forbidding earthquakes and in your case also deal with the Neuroi unless they're staggeringly intractable; see if we can copy your magic and distribute it to interested and trusted parties; and then put you back in the queue for more thorough upgrades when some Bell can be parted from her world long enough. Although you'll be able to contact us through Jane for spot assistance if something comes up."

[witchwatcher]

"I can't go home for a few hours. Teleporting to specific people takes extra mana, and across worlds apparently takes even more extra mana. Unless you fix that or something."

[jovahs_heiress]

"Well, I can try, if you like."

[witchwatcher]

"I would like. We don't have a good idea what mana actually is, all we know is that Witches power our magic with something our bodies generate slowly. We can feel how much we have, sorta. Using too much at once knocks us flat for a few minutes, and using too much in one day makes us unable to do further magic, but doesn't necessarily impair us physically. We generate less mana as we get older, which is no longer a problem for me at least."

[jovahs_heiress]

"Hmm, sounds complicated enough that just in case I should wait for Glass; she can either do it or call Lazarus, who's particularly good at seeing magic."

[witchwatcher]

"I have no objections," Lytee says.

"What's that communication magic that keeps flaring a bit? I can barely pick it out among all the - rest, but it could be really useful, telegraphs can't cross oceans or anything."

[jovahs_heiress]

[Brainphone. On the house.]