erroneous messenger, sleep!

[incanted]

Brilliance is probably the first person to notice Rainbow's Janepoint broadcasting the message, "error 112358: inferior pattern recognition".

Comments

[withmypowers]

"I don't think it's very likely, but I'm not ruling it out, either. What sorts of things can you tell me about the other mes?"

[incanted]

Bella conjures up illusions of the two of them, complete with party nametags and (in one case) magical girl outfit. "Tilly's a wizard from a world called Syntropy. There's a Bell there - that's what my template is called, Bells - and a Joker, which is what Brilliance's template is called. The Bell is Cam and the Joker is Jellybean. Also wizards." They appear too, also nametagged. "The other one without a nickname doesn't have any templates we know about in her world - she named it Wellspring - except the ones that are attached to you, which are: horrible parents, horrible school principal called 'the Trunchbull', and a Jenny Honey who is the niece of the horrible school principal. Wellspring's magic system isn't like Syntropy's and Matilda unlike Tilly was working alone - Jellybean went to Syntropy Crunchem Hall, he met Tilly there - but in both cases, prodigy-early magic starting with telekinesis, showdown involving same with the evil principal, biological parents signed them over to their respective Jennies. I don't have a clear picture of what Matilda did after that, although she did get Shell Bell to bring her Jenny's parents back to life - Tilly couldn't do that, Syntropy doesn't interact correctly with the afterlife we've got access to - but Jellybean and Tilly went around touring the universe getting into trouble, introducing themselves to stars and trees and aliens, occasionally saving the lives of new wizards who were about to get killed by a sort of malevolent deitylike thing Syntropy has. That's how they met Cam, they saved him when he was fourteen - they're a little older than he is."

[withmypowers]

Matilda listens carefully to all of this.

"Well," she says. "That's remarkable."

[incanted]

"Yeah. I didn't talk extensively to either one of them, we just met briefly at a party, so this is mostly secondhand from Cam and some from Jane."

[withmypowers]

"I am increasingly convinced that you've met a couple of my alternate universe duplicates."

[incanted]

"Spiffy. Yeah, I would otherwise be way more concerned about you, but unless you're way off-model I expect us to get along fine."

[withmypowers]

"Concerned about me?"

[incanted]

"Threat sensor doesn't think you're hostile, but it does think you're a big deal, so if you were an unknown quantity I would be on my guard in spite of the admirable pirate-arresting."

[withmypowers]

"I am a big deal," Matilda says serenely. "If I wasn't a big deal, I would be kind of concerned about you."

[incanted]

"If you knew the other twelve of me you would not be concerned. We are nice," says Bella merrily.

[withmypowers]

"Most people are, once you get to know them."

[incanted]

"So there aren't a lot of regulations about handling Earth? That is good because I have been up to things on Earth."

[withmypowers]

"What kind of things?"

[incanted]

"Uh, eliminated a number of common diseases, reversed some desertification in Africa, fixed some failing Pacific fisheries, cleared Southeast Asia of land mines, for my mom's birthday I hid a lot of extra panda bears in various parts of China and they'll be found any day now, that sort of thing, and I'm in talks with assorted world leaders to reveal my existence and explain all of these phenomena and allow people to start colonizing this planet we're on now."

[withmypowers]

"Speaking of which, where did this place come from?"

[incanted]

"It's a copy of a planet in another dimension that I liked. One of Brilliance's alts was visiting and thought it'd be funny to give me one closer to home," says Bella.

[withmypowers]

"And which kind of offworld magic does casual conjuring of planets?"

[incanted]

"Minting. It might be possible to do it with enchanting... hmmm. Yeah, I could enchant a little one, if I really wanted to for some reason. More efficient to do it with minting though."

[withmypowers]

"Good to know," says Matilda.

[incanted]

"This one was made with minting, anyway, I would've noticed if he'd enchanted it."

[withmypowers]

"Oh?"

[incanted]

"Minting is amenable to magic storage and enchanting isn't," explains Bella. "And I was looking right at him when he did it."

[withmypowers]

"Aha. How do these things work, exactly?"

[incanted]

Bella considers her.

"Are you planning to spread the information any farther? I'm willing to trust an unfamiliar Matilda; I don't know about all your co-workers."

[withmypowers]

"If you tell me that your magic is powered by the souls of the damned, or something similarly unpleasant, I might have to pass it on," she says. "But if the information isn't concealing harm, I don't see why it has to go any farther than me and my partner." She pats the cover of the book, which is still tucked under her arm.