something she can use

[alicornucopia]

Ehail blinks, when she finds the bar instead of her room.

She goes in.

She looks out the window, at the exploding things.

"I don't think this is my planet," she observes to herself, tucking silver hair behind her ear.

~~~

with Elysse

with Lazarus

Comments

[nonbird]

"Oh - speaking of which," says Lazarus, turning to Libby. "I have figured out an important thing about coins that you should probably know. I think that the same thing that is wrong with sevens is also wrong with all the coins below them - sixes and fives at least, I saw you use both of those. They do extra magic, in the amount of the next coin down. When you used an eight safely it didn't do that. So I think it's extra important to be safe with eights, because if they went wrong it would probably be a lot worse than what happens with sevens. And I guess the reason sixes and down don't seem like they bite is because they are not aiming well enough for a five's worth of magic to end up biting very hard."

He declines to specify Libby's exact procedure for safely using large coins - but of course he knows it.

[prima_sequentem]

Of course he does. She knew he'd pick up on that when she did it in front of him.

"Thank you, Lazarus. I'll keep that in mind."

[alicornucopia]

"I don't know it exactly. I can just make extras, though. New babies hatch all the time. Is there a reason not to make them back in my world?"

[prima_sequentem]

"There's no reason not to make them back in your world - although if you want to use them back in your world, I'll have to tell you how to do it safely. I just thought you might prefer to have a supply saved up ahead of time, to make going around distributing the wishes that little bit more efficient. How is the population arranged, anyway? Will you be able to find them all?"

[alicornucopia]

"Some of them very easily - the rest will be harder, they're scattered, but this will be news, I'm sure they will all be found sooner or later, and the babies will be easier to locate than anyone else and they're the most important to do quickly. Most of us grow up in one of four houses. Some stay after that. The dragon council knows where to find anyone who's with their - families."

[prima_sequentem]

"Four," she says. "And there's three of us. If I brought Chris, and if you could arrange to vouch for us in all four places first, we could complete all the babies pretty quickly. In which case it would be very useful to have a supply of coins ahead of time, so we wouldn't need to teleport back and forth between you and our respective locations to get more."

[alicornucopia]

"Okay." Ehail shifts back to her human form, a faint smile on her lips. "I could do that."

[prima_sequentem]

Libby smiles back.

[alicornucopia]

"Should I just start making them here...? I don't have anywhere good to put them and they might get lost with all the scales since they're the same color."

[prima_sequentem]

"Hmm... I could give you something like I have, a wish that keeps your coins tucked away where only you can get at them," she says. "It's very convenient. Although while we're at it I think I might upgrade mine, now that I know there are potentially more kinds; it's handling the eights a little inelegantly. If you give me a couple of sixes and a little time to think, I'm sure I can come up with something better."

[alicornucopia]

"Okay." Ehail makes three more sixes and hands them over.

[prima_sequentem]

"Thank you."

She takes a few seconds to ponder, and then two of the coins disappear.

"There. When you make coins they'll automatically go into storage, you can consult storage at any time to tell how many of what kinds in what colours are in there - there's not much practical purpose to knowing the colours, but there wasn't a good reason not to, either - and take coins either 'halfway' out, so they're only substantial enough to you for you to wish on them and aren't apparent to anyone else at all, or all the way out so you can hand them to someone else. Lazarus, would you like one too?"

[nonbird]

"That is much more elegant than what you previously had," he says. "If I'm being drafted as a dragon completion assistant, then - yes, I suppose, all right."

[prima_sequentem]

She wishes on the third six. "There."

[alicornucopia]

"Miracle-worker," suggests Ehail, when Lazarus says "dragon completion assistant".

[nonbird]

"Dragon completion assistant might be more fun to say," he says contemplatively. "And less self-aggrandizing."

[alicornucopia]

"You'll be called it anyway. It's a miracle. I'm a miracle."

[nonbird]

"Well. Okay then."

[alicornucopia]

Ehail sets about making the eight-pointed ones, slightly stiff but not complaining.

[prima_sequentem]

"At some convenient moment I can take us back to Lazarus's place," Libby mentions. "Or anywhere else, for that matter, but I'm not getting much of a tourist vibe from you."

[alicornucopia]

"Not really," agrees Ehail. "I do think maybe when all the miracles have been handed out I might fly to the moon..."

[prima_sequentem]

"There's no particular reason not to show you our moon while you're here," she says. "If you're interested, and feel like sparing a six to take care of the atmosphere problem. I'm not sure what your situation is exactly, but around here, we need to breathe air and the moon doesn't have any."

[alicornucopia]

"...Why wouldn't it have any?"

[prima_sequentem]

"Air collects around planets and places much smaller than planets aren't big enough to collect any. If you want a more complete and rigorous answer, I have an astrophysicist on call."

[alicornucopia]

"I suppose that suffices. There must just be less air here in general, I suppose."