incanted | universal template sweep!

Bella's checks for templates other than herself, Brilliance, Matilda, Libby, and people attached to them like her and Lexi's parents or Libby's Chris turns up nothing - no friends, no villains.

Before Libby contacts her, she gets visitors.

"Shell Bell! Juliet! Wow, how long has it been for you guys?"

"At home, no time," says Shell Bell.

"Longer for me. I can get to Milliways anytime, but Jane is really fucking broken," says Juliet. "Not years, though, just a few months, and for a while nothing I urgently needed offworld help for came up. I finally had to force the door to Atlantis to get Shell Bell so we could go to Yggdrasil - the Jarvis there lost connection - and then we swung through all the other Jarvised worlds to quarantine a certain transmissible spell from Sunshine, and then we figured as long as we were together and Shell Bell can door near anywhere we'd stop here. For your charming company and also coins. Next is picking up Glass and trying for the world where Aegis went."

"Yeah, sure," says Aurora, "you can have coins, no problem - I'm not down much time, more than before but only about a week. It turns out I have a Matilda and also a Libby, but my Libby is less than impressed with me, I think, Juliet, can you run and get yours?"

"Working with Shell Bell's doors instead of Jane means the best way to do that without losing any time is going to your Libby and opening a door there," says Juliet. "Will she be up for that?"

"She said she'd call me today when she wasn't busy, I can bring you guys," nods Aurora. "If you don't mind waiting around a little."

"Well, in the meantime we could maybe meet your Matilda? Is she busy?" asks Shell Bell.

"I'll check."

[Hey, Matilda! Guess who's here!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Shell Bell's the one who can move independently and knows the place, so she takes on the role of tour guide. The broken Janepoint, the emptied party setup, the extra floors, the Bellbook and associated other books.

"Ooh, books."

"Feel free to read them," says Shell Bell. "The trade secrets don't get written."

She picks up the Bellbook and starts flipping through it.

"Trade secrets?"

"How to safely handle stars and up; how to deal with a rogue mint."

"Aha."

"I can only imagine being poor Stella before she knew how to do stars. I had to use a tenner the other month."

"Fortunately we know now."

"What are you prevented from doing if you don't know how to use stars?"

"Stars are important for scale," explains Shell Bell. "I needed one to put a city on the moon. Anything that affects an entire planet is probably going to be a star."

"And the next coin up is necessary to get any of our powers to persist through torching," says Juliet, "and the next one after that is good for changes to basic laws of nature over a subworld, and a tenner suffices to make a subworld with desired parameters and give you root access to its reality - or just pick up a particularly magic-resistant hell goddess and put her Downside for the admin to deal with, which is what I spent one on."

"I see," says Agent Honey.

"Of those of us who rely on Aurora's excess the two of us will have the easiest time actually getting to Rainbow in a pinch. I wouldn't turn down a top-up but we should probably check on Glass first in case she's desperately low."

"Agreed."

"We can wait for James and Beth, though."

James and Beth return after a little while longer.

"Beth is now minted," James announces. "And on board with general Belling."

"Excellent. Thanks, James."

"That will make it easier to do my general Belling, yeah, thanks."

James grins.

Beth smiles.

"Are Libbies and Agent Honey accompanying us to look for Glass?" inquires Aurora.

"I think I'll go home, if it's all the same to you guys."

"Ditto that."

"No way am I missing out on meeting Glass," says Agent Honey.

"Okay, well, James knows and Beth should know that the door will take you both back where you came from; if things are working normally it'll be no time to speak of between then and when we come back."

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