"I like pain," Alice points out. "Like, I don't want wish powers to have wish powers, I want wish powers so I can hurt myself in creative ways and not end up in the hospital for it. The part where you end up sleeping on a hoard of hexes like a sexy dragon is just a bonus."

Bella giggles helplessly at this mental image. "Okay," she manages.

Alice grins back at her.

"I wish it said what was in the stash. I was hoping the cipher would say, but I guess not. Maybe he expected to go back to it and add or remove coins a few times between writing this book and his death."

"Oh, well. We'll find out tomorrow, right?"

"Assuming we find it, yeah. Your map is really good, but it covers a wide area and the point of the X probably handles a good few hundred square feet. Maybe it'll be obvious when we get there," she shrugs. "Or a square can make it glow or something."

"Oh, that's possible too," Bella agrees. "Elias did definitely go to a lot of trouble to make all this only go to a descendant."

"...I feel like there's a joke in there about descendants falling down holes..."

"I'm not seeing it," says Bella.

"Descending," says Alice, and makes an appropriate hand motion.

"A-ha. Cute." She chuckles. "I wonder which side of the family I'm descended from him through? Both my parents are from here, but all the grandparents have died or retired elsewhere, now..."

"Not a clue. Can you find out?"

"I guess. People who do genealogy as a hobby probably have something to do besides quiz their elderly relatives. But I kind of suspect that if this house - and therefore its secret passage - was here long enough ago that Elias was still writing the way he did, then he was living an unconventional and magic-assisted lifestyle. He may not appear in resources like that. I suppose I could just see if I can find any Frobishers."

"It's not exactly a dime-a-dozen name," he agrees.

"Speaking of names," she says. "Why 'Alice'? Is it after the character in your favorite book?"

"Pretty Alice, Alice Cooper, Alice in Wonderland..."

"Interesting. My parents just picked my name out of a baby name book, and I like Bella better than Isabella 'cause it's shorter. My dad calls me Bells, and I'd go by that in general if it didn't sound too affectionate for random people to use."

"I mean, I'm not really that attached to Alice," he says. "I just like it. I could be Marilyn or Lesley or Francis or Brian or Cindy or, you know, whatever."

Bella nods. "Do those have relevant associations too?"

"Marilyn Manson. Marilyn Monroe. Cinderella. Cindy Lou Who. The rest of 'em I just thought up on the spot."

"I think I'll stick with Alice and Pinball Wizard and, where applicable, 'belligerent idiot'," says Bella.

"Works for me," he says cheerfully.

Bella picks up Elias's book and flips to the profiles section she hadn't previously read much into. "You can call me Bells if you feel like it."

"I might," he says. "Can I call you other things?"