Biology ensues, both in the usual way with both of them respirating and metabolizing and the like, and also as a study topic.

Hi, Bella!

My friend finally caved. You can direct your nosy questions to her now. (Hi, Chris!)

Hi, Chris! Thanks for agreeing to talk to me. First of all, if you don't trust email for the topic in question, let me know and we can work out something else. If email's fine, let's start with the obvious:

What is it you do?

-Bella

Short story: I protect people.

There's a progression of longer and longer stories if you want more detail, but some of them are going to take a lot of explaining. I won't trust email for all of it. If you're the kind of person who likes to have the whole story (and I'm betting you are), we should definitely find a more secure way to talk.

You bet correctly. There's various forms of electronic encryption. I can also get anyplace in the South Bay pretty readily to talk in person, although it occurs to me that I have no idea where you live. Phones are generally insecure if someone's looking to spy on you, but harder to sift through with robots for general topics of interest because voice recognition is spotty. What's your preference?

For our purposes, I think a phone will do the trick. Please call me when it is daylight on the east coast.

"Hi! Is this Chris?"

"Depends who's asking," says Chris.

"This is Bella, Bridget's friend."

"In that case, yes, this is Chris."

"Who would you have been if I were Tricia, calling about whether you're satisfied with your current credit provider?" Bella asks, amused. "Do you often have to implausibly deny your identity to callers?"

"No, I just have a twisted sense of humour," Chris says cheerfully.

"Ah-huh. So. Protecting people. How's that work?"

"I pick someone, and they are protected until I decide otherwise," says Chris. "From pretty much anything you can name. Which is the part where it really gets interesting. Just so we're on the same page, if I say 'wishes', am I going to have to waste time explaining that to you or are you going to know what I'm talking about?"

"Not genies," says Chris. "Just wishes. Evidently you already believe in magic powers; well, there are some very lucky people whose magic powers let them grant wishes of varying sizes for themselves and others. Which I mention because my power protects against everything, including kinds of harm that can only be accomplished by magic. Like, say, mind control. As far as I know, there are no people running around with native mind control powers."

"I meant native as in a power that specifically does mind control, as opposed to the wish-power, which can do a lot of things, mind control theoretically included. Why, do you want some?"

"It's not out of the question that I might be able to hook you up," says Chris. "But it wouldn't be cheap."

"How not-cheap?" Bella asks slowly. "Er, do you mean money? Is someone selling magic wishing powers for money? Is there some reason not to just wish for the money directly?"

"I don't mean money, no," says Chris. "And you seem like a smart kid, so I'll let you think about the economic problems inherent in wishing for a big pile of cash out of nowhere all by yourself."

"Well, okay, not cash, but... gold, purebred Persian kittens, convenient volcanic islands in tropical locales, stuff you can sell. What do you mean, if not money or any such thing?"