"I assume I could not possibly have any Essence at all if I didn't have a soul in the local sense?"

"Yep. Totally foundational. You could've had a soul but no Essence, though."

"And yet there isn't anything in my own world which has led to the discovery of souls, which suggests they were just kind of waiting around not doing much."

"Sure. And it's not like not having a soul means you're not a person. Hell, there's people here without souls, either because of mutation or demonic ancestry or whatever. I think there's one kind as a congenital birth defect. It's got side effects, and it makes the Mystic Arts folks really upset, but they're still people. This ain't Christianity, here."

"So maybe most people back home don't have souls and I'm just lucky? Or caught one somehow. Morty did it!"

"It's possible! I'd say it's more likely y'all have souls and just don't do much with them, though."

"Seems like a reasonable hypothesis, anyway."

Ariel's stomach growls. She groans at it. "Already? Seriously? It's been like an hour, metabolism."

"Do you want a lift to the cafeteria?"

"Sure! You're my very favorite taxi. And also great in a bunch of ways unrelated to being the best taxi, I should clarify."

"I appreciate that." Pop.

"...Me? Right now?"

"...Great. I think my primary bottlenecks on arbitrage are," she counts on her fingers, "that I don't have an actual stepwise way to get someone to send things to my sister or get things from her, my sister is extremely cash-limited in Gemini-world dollars, and it may be slightly awkward for her to attempt to buy and sell various metals on the commodities market while she is a sixteen-year-old layperson with a high time preference and a recently exploded Yellowstone interfering with general infrastructure."

Phase nods. "Entirely reasonable. Sending over the dimensional border is not an issue for me; I am, as I mentioned, enormously rich, and have some very accomplished wizards on retainer. And fortunately, working the markets as a sixteen-year-old is something I am intimately familiar with." (Ms. Carson snickers. Phase affords her a quick glare.) "I can walk your sister through the process step-by-step if necessary. I could also simply send over one of my high-ranked accountants to do it herself, if that would be convenient for you and your sister. As to getting Gemini-appropriate capital, I can arrange that fairly easily with some very rapid lower-level arbitrage."

"Lower level arbitrage like...? I'm imagining a lemonade stand and that's probably not what you have in mind."

Phase laughs. "I mean, Goodkind Industries does manufacture lemonade, but not what I meant. It's a personal euphemism for selling shiny things to rich people for quick cash. Once you know how to go about doing it, you can offload a bag of Krugerrands in twelve hours. I imagine it'll be a bit more difficult than usual given the state of your America, but there's always going to be people with more money than sense, even if you have to go to Belgium to find them."

"Cool. I would have an easier time going to Belgium than Alli, but only if I were in the right world with the right Belgium first..."

Phase furrows their brow. "Are you asking to go with? I had assumed that option was implied. It'd be pretty rude to offer to send over my own accountants for minor convenience and then say, 'no, sorry, you can't visit your family unless you pay your own way.' I mean, I've known assholes like that, but I like to think I'm not one of them."

"You said you were non-evil, not that you were particularly nice. If I can go along that makes it a lot easier. Does add the complication of my class schedule, which Alli is happily free of for unhappy reasons."

"I wouldn't call that particularly- never mind. We can work with your schedule. Would Alli like to study at Whateley? I've got a few scholarship accounts lying around. For that matter, life in Caldera Americana sounds unpleasant; I'd be willing to set your parents up in this universe as well, if you'd like."

"Hey Alli. No, seriously, wake up. C'mon Alli. Hey Alli I met a benevolent rich person do you want to move here?" Pause. "Yeah, you could go here. Ask 'em if they want to come too. I bet Charlie says no, but - yeah, ask 'em. Okay, you go back to sleep and you go ask them, then. Yeah, suck it up. I'll ask." She takes her hand off her chin. "Set them up meaning?"