[Okaaaaaay,] says Alice. [So, point for the stalker theory. Except why would a magic stalker make a bunch of people spy on you?]

[I don't know. Magical spying before I fizzled it. Happened to hear about the car crash and found my recovery suspicious. Thinks I'm too much of a polymath, with the flute and the soccer and the grades. Can see invisibility and spotted me flying around. Thinks Tegu is too good to be true.]

That prompts Alice to wonder about an invisibility arms race, and at what point the cycle of 'invisible' vs 'able to see invisible people' vs 'invisible even to people who can see invisible things' vs 'able to see extra-invisible people' would be halted by the natural limitations of hexagons, and how they might test that, and whether Bella has thought of it already. She probably has.

[I don't see people around a whole lot,] he says. [Not people I don't know, anyway. Mostly it's just mom and Hilary whenever I'm at the house. Well, and sometimes I wander around Stanford and wherever,] meaning the campus, the town, the surrounding area, and once in a while a nearby city, [but I'm invisible half the time and I haven't caught anybody staring at me either way. You want me to get a stalker radar, too?]

Well, then it would hardly tell him if he was being stalked, would it?

[You could still spot-check,] Bella points out.

[Mm, yeah, I guess.]

Since this study session is at Bridget's apartment, she feels comfortable opening with, "So I talked to that other person with magic powers. They seem kind of on the fence about sharing personal information. Do you want me to try to convince them?"

"That would be nice of you, yes. Did they specify what has them concerned?"

"Not in any great detail. I think it's more general caginess than anything."

"I suppose that's fair. I didn't catch them getting shot. Or whatever it is they do."

"Or whatever," Bridget agrees. "Enough mysteries, on to biology?"

"Mysteries are more interesting than biology," Bella says. "I don't suppose there are any assurances I could reasonably offer that would put your friend's mind at ease?"

"Well, if you had magic powers of your very own, you could tell them that," says Bridget. "I bet that would help. Kind of an in-this-together thing, you know? But as far as I know, you don't, so there goes that idea."

Bella shrugs in a convincing imitation of helplessness. "Biology," she sighs.

Bridget laughs. "Biology," she agrees.

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?"

"Magic powers are a thing you can sell," Chris says dryly. "Under certain circumstances. To select people. For varying prices, depending on which powers and who wants them. I'm not in the business, I just know some people."

"What kinda powers are in the powers catalog? What kinda prices do they go for? Examples. Ballpark."

"There is no catalog," she says. "If you really want to buy some, and if the right people happen to think you're worth their time, I can put you in touch and you can ask them for a magic power and they will ask you for something in return. I don't know what; I've never bought any. But I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that it's probably beyond the means of your average Stanford undergrad."

"The usual way. You meet someone, you become friends, you learn about their career... then you learn about their other career."

"You're making it sound like a drugmarket underworld or something."

"I won't deny that there are parallels. But I'm happy to report that as far as I know, none of my friends are in the drug trade."

"That's probably for the best. So if you've never bought any... you were just born with your power? Or something? What makes that happen?"

"It came in when I was about six," she recalls. "I had a younger sister who ran into things a lot, and I worried about her, and then one day I could just tell she was okay. And the next time she got overexcited and had an unfortunate encounter with a door, I could tell she wasn't hurt. As for why it happens, your guess is probably only slightly worse than mine. They're rare enough that it's hard to see any kind of pattern."

"Do you know anyone else apart from Bridget with a 'native' power?"

"A few. One, interestingly, who can detect and analyze other people's powers. He sat down at my table in a coffee shop one day and asked if I believe in magic, and has remained rude yet fascinating ever since."

"Ooh. I bet he's useful to your weird magic-market friends. Is he? I'm not sure how these things are supposed to interact. Who else?"

"One who has a limited ability to see the future—she makes a decent living as a stockbroker and tends to answer phone calls and emails very promptly. And one who is magically unobtrusive. He's friends with the magic detector."

"Unobtrusive how?" Bella asks.

"Unobtrusive. Hard to notice. You wouldn't tend to pick him out of a crowd, and if he's feeling especially shy he could be sitting on your couch in a red-and-white striped top hat playing the accordion and you'd walk right past him."

"So he can make the accordion and his hat unobtrusive too. How far does that go?"

"Well, you know that favourite college pastime of drawing on your sleeping friends with Sharpie? According to rumour, he can skip the sleeping part."

"That's... interesting, but not exactly what I was asking. If he can play the accordion and no one notices, can he also turn on iTunes and have no one notice even though the computer is playing the music? What happens if he releases a cageful of excited hummingbirds into a room, do people start noticing them when they get a certain distance away or after a certain length of time or what? Can he steal objects - big obvious objects - without anyone paying attention? What if you're concentrating on the object at the time, what exactly happens to your attention or your cognition around it?"

"Why do you imagine I will know the answers to all these questions?" she wonders. "Just from knowing the guy, the rule of thumb seems to be that you notice whatever still makes sense without him in the picture. So, floating Sharpie drawing on your face: doesn't make sense. Accordion in a top hat on your couch playing itself: doesn't make sense. Sudden explosion of hummingbirds: granted, doesn't make much sense either, but once they're out of the cage they make just as much sense without him, so I bet you'd start noticing them at that point. And from experience, I can tell you that things don't appear out of thin air when he puts them down; it's like they were there all along and you only started paying attention a second ago. How that would interact with the hummingbirds is anyone's guess."

"I don't know how well you know him," Bella points out. "I know a heck of a lot about what Bridget's does; for all I knew you'd have comparable information about this guy. How does the precog work, what do you know about her?"

"If you grilled her like this, I'll bet you know a lot about what Bridget's does," Chris says amiably. "The precog doesn't like to have long conversations about her power. I gather she doesn't necessarily see the future, and her predictions sometimes change even without her doing anything about them."

"Er, I don't want to be rude, but how do you know she's a precog and not just a lucky investor who keeps on top of her inbox?"

"Because once in a while I get a perfectly coherent reply to an email I haven't actually sent yet."

"I guess that would be convincing, especially if you aren't predictable in what emails you send," Bella muses. "Can I talk to her, too? What about the unobtrusive guy?" She ramps up to 3x so she can think about how to phrase her next question without pausing: "And, hey, can the power-checking guy work over the phone or whatever? Even if he can't I wanna talk to him too, anyone with powers who'll let me."

"The unobtrusive guy has the power of ultimate shyness for a reason. I don't think you'd get along. And the precog, like I said, doesn't like to talk about it. Lazarus is always ready to talk your ear off about magic, though. Why, did you want him to check you for latent superpowers?"

"I imagine they'd be really latent. Everything you've mentioned seems to be the kind of thing you'd notice, right? So I doubt there'd be much point, but if he likes talking people's ears off about magic, I have a redundant ear handy. Can you give out his number or do you have to ask first?"

"How about I give him yours?" she suggests.

"Does his power work over the phone? I have this mental image of picking up while my roommate's around, and then flailing around and having to explain it if he says I have something," says Bella, chuckling softly. She's backed into a bit of a corner, but there's no way the personality she was revealing would pass up a chance to talk to any magic person at this point. Sigh.

"Not as far as I know," says Chris, "but I haven't asked."

"Well, what conditions make him work in person? Does he have to be near you, or able to see you? Has he identified any celebrities as having magic, by watching them on TV?" Bella suggests.

"I think you're going to have to ask him those. He will probably jump up and down with glee."

"How close to your table at the coffee shop was he before he formed the visible intention to sit with you?" Bella tries.

"It's been a while, but as far as I can recall, by the time I noticed him he was already headed my way. He might even have come into the coffee shop specifically to talk to me; I didn't get around to asking. When I asked him why he wanted to know if I believed in magic, he said something along the lines of 'well, I noticed you have some'."

Bella decides to try layering another hex's worth of oomph to her defense against magical spying. It goes, so it must have done something, but a third hex refuses to follow it, so that must be all she could do. "Okay. I think he's clearly going to be my new best friend, if he likes talking magic as much as you say, so go ahead and give him my number."

"Will do," Chris says cheerfully.

"But in the meantime," says Bella. "I bet you can tell me more about your power, even if you inexplicably haven't quizzed all your friends on theirs. Can you do more than one person at once? How do you know it protects against any given thing - have you tested it or do you 'just know'? Maybe it's an anti-obsessing-over-the-safety-of-loved-ones power more than a genuine protection power, if it hasn't much been tested."

"It got my sister out of trouble a time or two. And then my niece, when she was born. And it definitely can't cover more than one person at once."

"What kind of trouble? You mentioned mind control; is someone with a mind control power running around attacking people?"

"Mind control was a hypothetical example," Chris assures her. "I can tell you that whoever I'm protecting is at least as resilient as Bridget, plus immune to all the hostile magic we can think of. I could also tell you how we found that out, but I'm not going to give away all my secrets."

"Why not?" Bella asks innocently.

"Because I barely know you?" she suggests.

"Maybe I can think of something you didn't and then you can make sure that's covered too," Bella suggests.

"My confidence in your trustworthiness does not go up when you tell me you want to know so you can find my potential weaknesses."

"That was an example of how I could be helpful," Bella says peevishly. "The 'and then you can make sure that's covered' part did imply so. Oh well. Does it take effort, to keep it up? Concentration?"

"Nope," says Chris. "I can always tell who it's pointed at, though. A little like wearing a watch - it's not in your face all the time, but it's there every time you want to check it and you'd notice if it went away."

"Can you have it attached to nobody? You made it sound like it started on your sister and moved to your niece and is just on all the time. Can you use it on yourself?"

"I can have it attached to nobody, but I don't like to," she says. "It feels weird. Like trying to wear your watch as a hat. And no, I can't use it on myself."

"How much is this 'feeling' actually, you know, a feeling, like if something were actually buckled to your arm, and how much is that just the only way you have to talk about it?" Bella asks.

"It's not a physical sensation, if that's what you mean. It's kind of like an extra sense."

"I don't suppose it ever senses any other things?"

"Depends what you mean by 'other things'. I can tell who my power is pointing at, and I can tell when they would have gotten hurt if it wasn't, and I can tell whether or not I could cover somebody if I hypothetically tried. I couldn't cover you, for example; I just checked. No idea why."

"What generally distinguishes people you can and can't cover?" Bella asks quizzically. "Is there any discernible pattern?"

"In people I've known for a while, it seems to correlate loosely with how much they like me. In strangers and recent acquaintances, anybody's guess. Lazarus makes noises about figuring it out sometimes, but he's not always as good with the details as he'd like to be."

"How odd," Bella says. "What else do you know about what you do?"

"I can't think of anything offhand. Why, have you run out of questions?"

"I'll think of six as soon as I hang up, but none are pouring out of me at the moment."

"You can always call back later."

"You take calls during arbitrary days when the sun's up?" Bella asks.

"I have a very open schedule and am willing and able to let people go to voicemail when I'm busy."

"That works," Bella agrees. "Are you normally around only people you can talk magic in front of, when you're not busy?"

"Normally yes."

"So that's your natively magic friends, and who else? People with storebought powers?"

"Demonstrably, I can also talk magic to people who know about it but don't have any," says Chris.

"I was thinking of people you hang out with in person, but you know what, that's interesting too, who else knows about magic and hasn't got any?" Bella asks.

"My niece, for one."

"How come she hasn't bought some?"

"Well, part of the reason I say that the price of superpowers is probably beyond the reach of a Stanford undergrad is that I know it's definitely beyond the reach of a PhD in mathematics."

"You said it wasn't a monetary cost. What is it about undergrads and PhDs that makes us unlikely to be able to scrape up whatever the not-money is?"

"Now, granted I'm just guessing because I don't know the details of that conversation, but I'm betting they turned her down because she couldn't do them interesting enough favours."

"What do people with magic to sell even want?"

"I really couldn't tell you," says Chris, amused.

"Do you know anybody with bought magic?" Bella tries. "Or anybody who knows anybody? Does Lazarus detect that too?"

"I don't personally know anybody with bought magic, but I do know Lazarus can detect it."

"So maybe he can tell me about them," Bella says. "Okay, this conversation seems to keep leading back to 'I should just ask Lazarus'. Anything you're willing to tell me that he doesn't know, before I bid you goodbye?"

"Nope," says Chris.

"All right then. Thanks for your time," Bella says politely. "Please tell Lazarus that I'd love to listen to him talk about magic for hours if he'd be so kind."

"I think you two are going to get along really, really well," Chris predicts. "Should I give him your email address, your phone number, or both?"

"Both," says Bella. "Weak preference for email; allows latency."

"Will do," she says. "And you're welcome."

Hi!

A little bird told me you have questions about magic? She is a somewhat paranoid little bird sometimes, so she would probably rather we didn't mention her name, but I am neither paranoid nor little nor a bird so I have no problem talking magic over email.

Hello, nonbird! You must be Lazarus. I have all of the questions about magic and how people act around it. Do let me know if my questions begin to annoy you, but I'm led to believe that's unlikely. Here's some to start with; I don't know how much time you have and my impatience can put up a good fight against my curiosity sometimes.

- What "native" powers have you seen that the little bird didn't mention, assuming there are some? We covered Bridget and little bird herself and a precog and you and someone with an "unobtrusiveness" power.
- Are there patterns to where and when they appear? How many people have them in the general population?
- What's up with the storebought powers? Who's buying them, what are they paying, what kinds of powers do they tend to walk away with?
- How do you work? (I'm going to want similar detail about everybody, but I might as well start with you.) What's your range? Do you function through barriers, electronic media, etc.? What does it tell you exactly, do you have to turn it on or is it passive, does anything (like little bird's power?) block you or are you some sort of unstoppable force of divination...?

Thanks for taking the time to talk to me!

-Bella

I'm making all my friends call me Nonbird now. You have no idea what you've wrought.

To answer all your questions completely out of order:

I have a sense for powers the same way I have a sense of touch or taste or sight or sound or balance. It works in all directions and through barriers, up to the same range as sight and with about the same loss of detail over distance. I know where people with powers are when they're nearby, and most of the time I can figure out what they do if I look at them long enough. 'Look' is a metaphor, of course, I used to actually squint at people but it only helps psychologically.

I haven't gathered detailed statistics, but I live in a fairly big city and I can go as long as a month without seeing any new powers, so the overall percentage can't be that high. Everyone I've talked to who knows they have a power and remembers a time when they didn't has said it came in before they were ten; I'm in the 'can't remember a time when I didn't' category. It always seems to be relevant to them in some way, although it's not always obvious until you get to know them.

"Storebought" powers are interesting. I know one or two people with them, but they're even more secretive than the little bird; they haven't told me much and they probably don't want me to repeat any of it. I can talk about the powers in the abstract, though. They're very easy to tell apart from native powers, and it's usually easier for me to tell what they do without getting up close. I've seen a few 'in the wild', so to speak; there was a mint who rode two cars down from me on the subway once, who I never saw again, and someone who walked past me in a mall who had remote viewing.

To know if the little bird's power blocked me, I would have to have looked at someone she was covering who had a power. I haven't looked at someone she was covering, powers or no, so it's hard to say. At a guess, though, I'd bet she wouldn't. Her power is very protective, and mine isn't harmful.

On the other hand, Kolya's unobtrusiveness hides itself just as well as it hides the rest of him. When he has it turned up, I'm as oblivious to him as anybody.

You're welcome for your new nickname.

A "mint"? Like... the herb, or what?

"Most of the time"? When can you not, what goes wrong?

It being a sense sounds really interesting. Do you have magical aesthetics? Would it really annoy you if someone with a certain power moved in upstairs and just went on having it at all hours of the night? Do you sense your own power directly?

Do you go out a lot? That affects how much your big city is affecting what people you see; if you're a shut-in you have your neighbors and delivery people, not a huge sample size.

What do you mean by "relevant"?

Is it generally easy to get people to talk to you about their powers, once you walk up to them and ask if they believe in magic?

Knowing a dude who can be completely unobtrusive like that sounds really disconcerting.

"Most of the time": all powers vary in how hard to figure out they are. Nonnative are always easier than native, but besides that, it just seems to be a normal variance.

I sense my own power, yes. I've never seen a power that grated on me like you describe, but I guess it's theoretically possible. Some powers are definitely prettier than others.

A certain little bird was my biggest success story in walking up to a stranger and anouncing I could see their magic underwear (so to speak). Poor Kolya faded right out from in front of me and left me saying "...I should've expected that" to thin air.

It's not that bad, honestly. Whatever stories you might have been told, his pranking days were over before I met him.

Relevance: Like the little bird having a protective power and Kolya having an unobtrusiveness power and me having a nosy power. Native powers are always something the power-haver finds useful, or something that reflects their personality.

Shut-in: Nope! I sometimes go a day without leaving the apartment, but it's rare. I see plenty of people.

Mint: Did nobody tell you about wishcoins? Who have you been talking to about magic who didn't think that was the first thing to mention? Never mind, I can guess. Mints are where "storebought" powers come from. They're very distinctive. I've never seen a native mint, but they don't exactly look like other nonnative powers, either. Anyway, a mint is what I call someone who can make coins that grant wishes. I have a lot of theories about them, but I've never met one who felt like answering my questions, so my theories remain theories. I've seen the coins, though. Even used one once. They come in different shapes and colours and they disappear when you're done with them.

Always easier as in, the easiest-to-see native power is still harder to see than the hardest-to-see bought power?

Whose power is prettiest?

How'd you salvage the situation with Kolya?

Is there a good reason for you to have this particular nosy power, and not mindreading or something?

How big's the city? Better yet, what city? Have you traveled much, does it vary regionally or anything? Besides announcing that you know, what do you usually do when you spot somebody with a power - do you ever want to become a substitute teacher of sixth-graders and patrol the country and whisk away the ones with magic to your very own Hogwarts?

The little bird mentioned wishes but didn't use the word "mint", I think I'd have remembered that. What are your theories? What shapes and colors; do those matter? What kind did you get? What did you do with it - do you have a storebought power too?

Yep.

Kolya's. But no, in all seriousness, there's no one power that stands out as obviously the prettiest in the world.

He followed me home. I promise it was cuter and less creepy than it sounds.

I've lived in a few, actually. I met Chris in New York. As far as I can tell, there aren't especially more or less powers in any one place I've been.

I have never wanted to found Hogwarts before...

Oh, don't get me started on mints. Or do, if you really really want to. But they're almost a subject unto themselves, and I know less about them than I do about the rest of magic combined but I definitely think there's more to know about them than there is about the rest of magic combined. And that's the kind of sentence they reduce me to.

So no speculations about why this nosy power and not another?

Who has an ugly power? (Are people offended if you tell them they have ugly powers?)

I think I feel like getting you started on mints. What would you have asked that fellow on the train? What have you figured out despite such uncooperativeness? How do they make the coins - at some kind of fixed rate? Performing some kind of action? You didn't tell me about what kind of wish you made either, is it private?

I don't even know what you look like (except that you are a nonbird) and I'm still forming a clear mental picture of you informing an eleven year old boy, "You're a wizard, Harry."

According to Kolya, I am, quote, "a six-four scarecrow with a nose like an ice pick and hands like two halves of a bleached spider", end quote. I don't know what that's going to do to your mental picture, but there you have it.

Whoops, forgot about the nosiness. I've thought about it, but I couldn't tell you exactly why it fits. It just does.

I've never told anybody they have an ugly power. I'm not sure anybody really does. They range from neutral to kind of pretty.

Okay, I'll start you off with the list of things I've observed directly about wishcoins, because it's much shorter:

I've seen triangular coins, square coins, and a five-sided coin. I spent a square one to fix the way my jaw used to click when I yawned and it hasn't done it since. Some of the coins were sea-green and translucent, and some of them were dark purple and opaque.

I've 'seen' three mints in my life, and only met one of them face to face. That's where I got the square. The mint who gave it to me was really intent about me keeping secret pretty much everything about our meeting, and didn't tell me much anyway, but that's where I learned that wishcoins are where nonnative powers come from. Not that I couldn't have guessed that.

I think I can 'see' coins the same way I see powers. They're much subtler, though. If I'm right, then I think the colour of a coin represents who made it, because those sea-green coins 'looked' like the power of the mint who had them.

Anything beyond that is rampant speculation.

So I suppose you have a missing finger on each hand then?

What about other people - why does Kolya have his brand of unobtrusiveness and not, like, outright invisibility? Or hiding in a pocket dimension?

Wishing for your jaw not to click seems like a kind of silly wish. Why did you pick that? Was the coin designed to only do that wish, or that kind of thing?

Tell me about your speculations! You've had more time to form them than I have.

No one ever said Kolya was good at math.

I'm not sure I can explain this to someone who doesn't have one themselves, but as far as I can tell, everyone's power is the kind of thing it makes sense to them to have. That's just intuition, though. For all I know it could be random and we could all just be reading too much into it, like horoscopes. Or having the power could make you the kind of person who would have it instead of the other way around.

Not sure I can get into the whys. Let's say it was supposed to be trivial and leave it at that.

Speculations:

I think the number of sides on a coin is an indicator of power. More sides means it can do bigger or more complicated things.

If mints are where nonnative powers come from, there has to have been a native mint at some point, doesn't there? But I've never seen one. I can't figure out why.

I said nonnative powers are easier to figure out than native ones, and that's almost always true. Mints are the exception. Or I think they are, anyway. They're a lot more complicated than any other power, but at the same time in some ways they're simpler.

There's some element of interpretation involved whenever I figure out a power. I don't just directly perceive how they work.

I've figured some things out about minting that I'm not sure I really believe. They're kind of unnerving.

Yeah, I was thinking maybe horoscopes, but your way would be interesting too. Do you know any nonmagical people who it's really obvious what they'd have if they had anything?

>They're a lot more complicated than any other power, but at the same time in some ways they're simpler.

You're gonna have to expand that sentence for me a little. I cannot read your mind, natively or otherwise!

>There's some element of interpretation involved whenever I figure out a power. I don't just directly perceive how they work.

What's that like? Is it like... learning to read, or something else?

>I've figured some things out about minting that I'm not sure I really believe. They're kind of unnerving.

Oh, you can't just leave me hanging like that, come on.

Okay, think of the difference between this picture and this picture. Which one is simpler? Which one is more complicated? Most powers are more like the first one; there's patterns there, but it takes some looking before you start to understand them. Mints are like the second one. It's big and simple and obvious at first glance, and then you look closer and there are all these intricate details.

I wish we could have this conversation over coffee or something. I'm much better at explaining things when I can wave my hands around. Although I guess I'd have a harder time Googling suitable examples. Making explanatory gestures to my computer screen just looks silly and makes it hard to type, though.

Okay, I'll tell you what I think I figured out as soon as I figure out a way to put it into words without creeping myself out.

Skype? Best of both worlds.

Webcams are banned in the apartment. It's a Kolya thing.

Well, a mere phone conversation would satisfy the "don't have to type" criterion, I guess? I believe you have my number if that would suit. As of this moment I can expect to be alone in my room for an hour; after that my roommate may reappear and I'd have to find someplace else to go, but I could manage it.

No, it's fine, it's fine! I was just grousing. I am still fully capable of delivering my awkwardly worded ramblings. Ask me more interesting questions, this is the most fun I've had all week.

But you haven't told me what creepy thing you learned about the mints! Or the one about what interpreting powers is like. I generate more questions mostly by seeing what the answers to what I already asked are.

Okay okay... what was removing the jaw-clicking like? What did you do? Did it feel like anything?

Could you get ahold of any of the mints you've met if you really wanted to?

If you were a mint, what experiments would you want to do to figure out about it?

I forgot about interpreting powers. I was going to add it to the paragraph about the difference between mints and everyone else. Actually, I think that's what's got me going on about explanatory hand gestures in the first place, not that they'd help. It's hard to describe. I'll think about it; ask me again later if I forget again.

It didn't feel like anything. I just thought a wish and the coin disappeared and then I yawned and there was no click.

If I really, really wanted to, I could probably find the sea-green one again. I don't want to that badly. Especially because I'd just be in for another round of mystery theatre.

I don't want to be a mint. If I knew a cooperative mint, I'd want to study their coins and ask them how their power works and maybe but probably not watch them use it.

Because: The creepy thing about mints is how they make coins. I think it has to do with pain somehow. See? I'm creeping myself out already. I think coins are made out of a mint's pain. Why do I think that?

Wow, that's got to be the most fucked up magic power ever. Can't they buy a nicer minting power where they can make coins out of sunshine or something instead?

Why do you think that?

Mints are also the only true duplicate power I've ever seen. That might have something to do with it. Maybe there's only one way to be a mint.

Well, that goes back to what interpreting powers is like.

This is a bad way to put it, but I can't think of any better ones: The way a power 'looks' always has some qualities that make me think of things that are like how the power works. The little bird's power looks strong and solid and, I don't know, outward? It just looks like the kind of thing that's for protecting people. And Kolya's power looks shy and like it wants to be hiding behind something at all times. My power has an outwardness to it, too, but it's not exactly the same outwardness. And it's kind of angular and all-over-the-place, like sugar crystals. (Trying to describe powers in terms of the regular senses is usually doomed to failure, but once in a while I get good analogies referencing shape or size. A certain someone's is exactly person-sized, for example, although that has nothing to do with the size it appears to have in the physical world, because all powers are also the shape and size of the people who have them. But on a different level, they meaningfully aren't. Confused yet?)

So: the mint power 'looks' like a thing that turns pain into wishes.

I repeat: most fucked up power ever.

Maybe it's a conspiracy and the native mint does it differently but only sells this kind of minting to limit others' power! Wait, that's technically not a conspiracy, it only calls for one person. But you know what I mean.

I am a little confused, but maybe not as confused as you fear? I understand you're trying to talk about an extra sense with a language designed around its absence.

What else do you know about the wishes? What does "complexity" or "size" mean in terms of whether a wish needs one kind of coin or another? Is there any reason for people to be associated with the colors they are or does that seem random?

I don't know a lot about the wishes. And like I said, I haven't exactly seen enough colour combinations to have a good theory. That one mint didn't particularly seem like a sea-green person or anything.

I don't really know what complexity or size mean other than the obvious. Well, I guess "the obvious" isn't necessarily all that obvious. Bigger-and-more-complicated wishes are wishes that accomplish more things, or more of a thing. If I'd wanted to, I don't know, fix a broken arm as well as my clicky jaw, that might have taken a coin with one more side. Or even a broken arm instead of my clicky jaw. But I don't have any more than the vaguest possible sense of how the size of a wish actually relates to the number of sides it needs. For that matter, I don't know how many sides a coin can have. Maybe it stops at five, or maybe it keeps going up indefinitely and the most powerful coins just look like circles.

Have you met Bridget before? It occurs to me that I have no idea - I quizzed her extensively and she always had explanations for how she knew everything, she never said "Lazarus told me that I could do X" or anything. It just seems like you could develop a lot more usefulness if you had more of a sample size to look at properly, and she might not object, though I'd have to ask.

I dunno. What do you do with your time, anyway, nonbird, since you don't run Hogwarts?

Bridget's the physicist, isn't she? Dr. Banner? I've seen her, but not talked to her extensively. Her power is interesting. You'd think it would look like the little bird's, but it doesn't at all, even though there's some overlap in effect.

I have a boring nonmagical job where I do boring nonmagical things. I also like wandering around watching strangers do things. I'm told this is a creepy hobby.

Yes, she's a physicist. That's funny that her power doesn't resemble little bird's - can you describe the differences via poorly-suited metaphor in uncooperative words, please?

Boring nonmagical job sounds like the worst thing. In particular, it sounds boring.

I think people-watching is a thing. I mean, there's a word for it. And it makes sense in your case.

[I bet he's cute,] Alice says cheerfully.

> can you describe the differences via poorly-suited metaphor in uncooperative words, please?

Oh, yes, that's my favourite. :P

They do the same thing, or part of the same thing, but they do it in very different ways. The little bird's power is very outward, like I said; it goes outward from her to the person she's protecting and then looks outward again to guard them. Bridget's power is very, very inward. It works on her, not on the world around her. And it's big and small at the same time, like there's really three times as much Bridget as the world gets to see, trying to press itself down into just slightly less space than she nominally occupies. (Powers looking a little smaller than their people isn't unique—Kolya's does it too—but I've never seen one be simultaneously bigger like that.)

Bridget's power just working on her makes sense to me. She was kind enough to let me try to break her wrist. It didn't go. Nothing happened to me, her wrist just wasn't a breakable thing. I'd be vaguely curious what would happen if I made an attempt at attacking the little bird's niece - I imagine her wrist wouldn't break either, but it might not-break in an interestingly different way.

How long have you known all these various magical people?

Bella considers this. [I suppose that given sufficient magic making the excess complications of diseases and babies not-a-problem, the only thing that has me worried is that someone else will do their equivalent of calling you a freak, and then I have to share not just my boyfriend but also my pet masochist, and then I have to keep that person happy or run the risk of turning them into my archenemy and not having my advantage. But that could happen without sexy experiments, too, perhaps just as easily considering the timeline with you and me. So it makes more sense to focus on mitigating the possibility that I will wind up sharing you with an archenemy than just naively banning sinister experimentation with magic-detectors who may or may not be cute and expecting that to solve the quandary.]

If I were you, I wouldn't try it.

I've known these various magical people various amounts of time! Kolya the longest, the little bird next.

Why not? It wouldn't work any more than it did on Bridget. And I'd ask first. Ethical experimental procedures, and all. I don't know little bird's niece, of course, but if I met her why not inquire?

Sure, but when did you meet Kolya?

[So... you're pretty sure that I win in any of various contests between me and miscellaneous others you could fall in love with?] Bella asks. [Just because I showed up first or what? How do you know? I think you and I are both already protected against various direct attacks I'd try if I were my nemesis, but not against just plain mind-changing...]

I just don't think it would be a good idea.

Years and years ago, why?

But why do you think that?

I'm curious about correlations between how long you've known someone and how much you know about their power. And, there seems to be this whole network of magic people that I just stumbled across and I want to know how long it's existed.

[Okay,] says a somewhat confused Alice, [so what the hell exactly do you expect me to do about this hypothetical person who I haven't met yet and have no idea what they're like?]

[I don't have any expectations for you about that, at the moment. I expect to be paranoid and run at an extra half-a-brain so I can do other things while I worry.]

[Well, that sounds like the opposite of fun.]

Well, I'm a lot more familiar with Kolya's power than anyone else's because I've been living with him for (I just checked) two years. It's not how long I've known them that matters, really, it's how well I know them.

Is a collection of loosely acquainted people a network?

Sure it is. It's not a club or a political party or even a circle of friends, but it's certainly a network.

Have you met little bird's niece?

I'm sure little bird's niece is a lovely person, but I don't want to meet her at all.

Why not?

Have you met her niece?

[How?]

Why?

Just curious.

You AFK?

Yes and no. Sorry, I got distracted.

The truth is, our little bird kind of makes me nervous sometimes.

Oh dear.

Would you rather be having this conversation in some more confidential manner?

Maybe. I don't know. I'm probably just being silly.

I don't think it's silly.

Yes, well, you believe in magic.

Yes. Yes I do.

Magic is kind of scary.

Sometimes, yeah.

[You're the best.]

Lazarus squawks.

[Sorry, I couldn't resist. This is Bella. Please don't freak out. You can think back at me, text or voice-equivalent - it's a very intuitive interface really.]

[Ooh, my turn to answer questions,] laughs Bella. [First of all - you're not going to run off and tell the little bird, or anyone, that I said hi, are you? Or rather, that I said "boo"? Because you're right. She's kinda scary. Someone has been watching me, by suspiciously numerous proxies, and I don't know if it's her or someone else but I'd rather not chance her finding out. But I don't think you're working for whoever - a smart spooky force with you working for them would give you a lot more information to work with, I think. It would just be terribly inconvenient if you chose now to sign on with whoever wants so badly to spy on me.]

[I am definitely not going to tell Chris anything about this conversation,] he says, sitting back and running his hands through his hair. [I'm still kind of stuck on the fact that you're doing magic, to be honest. Didn't you not have any a minute ago?]

[I was lying,] Bella admits. [I mean, it's not like it's hard to hack into an email account. I don't know why they're interested in me, but on the off-chance that it's not my mad minting skills, I'd like that to continue. So yeah. I am minty fresh.]

[The pain thing is totally a thing,] Bella says. [Wishing for it to be sunshine instead does not work. The mint who gave you the square was a cheat if he was trying to get any substantial concession for it; you can get one of those by just biting the inside of your cheek decently hard, they're cheap. Well, not you, but mints. My coins are glowy and red, if you want to know. More sides do mean more power. There are triangles, squares, pentagons, hexagons, and seven-pointed stars. I don't know about anything beyond that. Stars are overkill for all practical purposes I have encountered thus far. More pain equals a "bigger" coin - I came up with a scale for it, and each tier of coin is a new power of ten. One through nine gets you a triangle, ten through ninety-nine gets a square, and so on.]

[I wonder why the change in shape,] Lazarus says musingly. [An exponential scale? Really? How do you measure...? Or do I even want to know?]

[I dunno, do you?] Bella asks, sincerely curious.

[I don't know,] he says helplessly, shaking his head. [No, curiosity wins over squeamishness, it generally does.]

[This part involves the biggest secret to my success, so to speak,] Bella says seriously. [I also don't know how closely you're being supervised - I don't know why the folks spying on me aren't using your valuable powers, but if they have a fraction of a brain they are paying attention to you. You can't do anything weird. You can't tell anyone, even Kolya, till I've had a chance to evaluate him myself. Capisce?]

[My boyfriend is the most masochistic masochist ever,] Bella says. [I've only ever made one hex. It made him a mint. He can make even stars all by himself - you know, recreationally - but I also hexed up a power that lets me help him out, and it comes with the units, where one unit is the bare minimum of pain to make a triangle.] Pause. [He has expressed an interest in having sinister experiments performed on him, by the way. I don't know if that would be discomfiting more than it would be curiosity-satisfying.]

[Recreationally,] Lazarus repeats. [Oh my. What kind of sinister experiments, or does he just like the phrase?]

[That was my phrase, actually. Whatever kind of sinister experiments would be informative for your magic-sense. Information is useful. I do not understand why you have not been eaten by a shadowy magical conspiracy already. Wanna be in mine? I'm nice, I promise.] Pause. [We could also make this a conference call if you'd like to talk to him directly.]

[Not yet,] he decides. [What exactly are you shadowy-ily magically conspiring to do?]

[I want to take over the world,] Bella says. [And make it behave itself. For example, at some point, when I can either do it inconspicuously or no longer need to be discreet, I intend to eradicate malaria. I'm lying low for the time being specifically because I don't know where all the world's mints and natively magic people are or what they are doing, but whatever they are doing does not meet my exacting standards.]

[...That is a good conspiracy,] says Lazarus. [I like that conspiracy. I am on board with that conspiracy.]

[I'm so glad,] says Bella merrily.

[My sinister experiments are probably just going to amount so sitting still in the same room with both of you for a while,] he says. [I'm really not a very exciting person. Well, and I might want to watch someone make a coin, but not, ah... recreationally.]

[He doesn't really have a non-recreational setting. I can make small ones non-recreationally if that would be more comfortable for you, though. What does your current boring job involve? I can help you with a cover story so Kolya doesn't wonder what you're up to - you can "apply for a job" that requires you to "sign a lot of confidentiality agreements". And then if you'd rather hang out with my conspiracy than do what you're doing, the "job" can hire you and require relocation.] Quotation marks appear in the text channel where appropriate.

[Well, I wouldn't want to get too far from Kolya. Is this yours?] he wonders. [Did you invent multimedia communicative telepathy?]

[Yes! Yes I did. Designing powers is fun,] Bella says. [Bring him with you if you like and can explain why and he wants to come, we have access to money to provide from your fictitious job with a secretive wee startup and it's not like it would be hard to get more.]

[I also kind of like my current city. How many powers have you designed?] he wonders. [How many do you have?]

[Uh, pardon, let me count,] Bella says. She counts. [Are we counting magical permanent hexagon-level powers, or also mundane things that I pentagoned myself good at for various reasons? And the two-layered one that I doubled up 'cause I was paranoid?]

[Minting, plus 17 other magic superpowers if you count the doubled one as two things, and one dozen non-language persistent uses of pentagons, variously frivolous, and twenty-one languages.]

[I really want to look at you,] says Lazarus. ['Look', I mean. I can't even imagine what a stack of powers like that would look like. I've never seen one before.]

[You shall just have to come visit me, then. How much do you like your current city? Because transit can be magicked, I'm just a little worried that Kolya will follow you to work one day and you won't notice.]

[Well, if I really seriously join your magical conspiracy, I'm going to have to tell Kolya,] he says. [No two ways about that.]

[That's probably fine eventually, I just have to be comfortable with telling him too before he gets all up in my secrets,] Bella says. [I would also really not like him to be able to unobtrusiveness at me, so I would want your help designing a workaround.]

[No,] says Lazarus. [Several kinds of no. Native powers always beat nonnative ones, for one thing, so it would be impossible, and he'd rather never be in the same room with you than not be able to escape your attention, so: no.]

[I can also work with the not being in the same room option. I've never been in a room with you before,] Bella points out, [and yet here I am, telling you all the things. I did not know that about native powers trumping. That is interesting.]

[He probably also wouldn't like you to 'boo' at him,] he adds.

[One time got it out of my system.]

[Well, if you decide to talk to him with your magical Skype, can I warn him first?]

[Yes. We usually call it a "brainphone"; I didn't install video capabilities,] Bella says. [But I'd want to email him first.]

[Okay,] says Lazarus.

[Nothing I can turn up with a pentagon. Do you want to visit now? My roommate is out all weekend visiting family, and so far no one has been attempting to spy on me in my actual room. All I need to know is where to make the magic door in the stairwell.]

[...I'm not sure where I'd put a magic door,] he says. [I don't exactly have a wardrobe handy.]

[Ours is in an unobtrusive wall in a stairwell, so we can see if anyone's coming. It's invisible to most people, and doesn't admit sound or strangers, and so on,] Bella adds. [So you could put it anywhere there's space to walk. It wouldn't even have to be in a surface; you won't go through by accident even if it's in the middle of your living room.]

[Yes, but I'd notice it all the time,] he points out. [And I don't really want anyone teleporting into the middle of my living room. Hmm.]

[Hallway, backyard, unisex bathroom of nearest coffee shop,] Bella rattles off, unconcerned.

[Hmm,] says Lazarus. [I think I'll go for a walk and see if I find anything that looks acceptable.]

[Okay. Please remember not to act weird; you weren't being supervised when I checked but it's probably easier to have eyes on you out of doors. If I were my nemesis I'd kidnap you and make it very inconvenient to kidnap you back again.]

[I'm not sure I know what acting weird means in this context.]

[Go places you normally go, don't whistle casually if you don't usually whistle casually, do not make excessively thoughtful or otherwise noticeable facial expressions compared to your baseline. We can pause in chatting if that would be helpful.]

[Wandering aimlessly and making thoughtful faces isn't all that unusual for me,] he says cheerfully.

[All right then, you're probably good.]

[Out of curiosity, how am I going to specify this piece of wall to you when I find it?]

[Magic's pretty clever. Get me an address and a description that doesn't match any other parts of wall and a hex can find it for me, no problem.]

[That's fascinating,] says Lazarus. [Have you experimented with degree of specification?]

[Except insofar as the wishes constitute natural experiments, not much - it may vary with coin size, and while I can be moderately frivolous with hexes, I wouldn't like to be caught short of them if something unwelcome were to happen unexpectedly. I have made many wishes in the course of things and have a decent feel for what they'll do, though.]

[Moderately frivolous,] he repeats. [How moderately? And while we're on the subject, actually, since you know more about this than me, what is the size and complexity of wish associated to each coin?]

[As in, if I want to use one, I use one - I just prefer to be decently sure that I want to use one. Triangles do tiny things. Flick lightswitches across the room, hurry along kitchen tasks like boiling water, banish itches in inconvenient locations in the middle of your back, whatever. I'll give you a bagful as a signing bonus into the conspiracy if you like. You could probably do creative productive things if you wanted, with a triangle - I'd use one to pull a fire alarm anonymously if I wanted a building evacuated, for instance. Squares are next up and if I were dealing with coin scarcity I'd use more of them than anything else. They can conjure inherently nonmagical medium-sized physical objects, perform tasks a grade up from triangle sorts of things, grant temporary nonmagical skills - it's disconcerting as hell when those go away though - and make illusions that stay put till you want them gone. Pentagons are good for permanent nonmagical skills, like my languages and stuff, and they can also conjure modestly magical objects, like my kickass motorcycle or appliances that don't need electricity. Hexes are good for permanent magical superpowers - stuff the X-Men could do, except it's worth being careful in design - and big, complicated makings-of-stuff, like doors that lead hundreds or thousands of miles away.]

[It's not obtrusively magical, but it's obtrusively awesome. It won't start or move for anyone but me without my say-so, and it doesn't need gas, though it'll take it if I need to fill up in front of somebody for some reason. And it is prettyful.]

[...I hope this isn't a rude question,] says Lazarus, [but how old are you?]

[Eighteen. Why, is thinking it is awesome that I have a magic bike coming off as some manner of immature? My dad thinks it's a spectacular bike too and he's past forty.]

[No, it's self-evident that magic bikes are awesome,] he assures her. [I'm not sure exactly; it's just something about the way you said it.]

[It's not going to be some kind of problem that I was born eighteen years ago, I hope.]

[It makes me slightly warier about joining your shadowy conspiracy,] he says, [but not very much warier. And it seems to be the best shadowy conspiracy on offer.]

[Well,] Bella said. [If I were older, I hope you'd expect me to have made commensurate progress in the shadowy conspiracy department? I'd be very skeptical of someone who was thirty, had ambitions to take over the world, and hadn't made any noticeable progress yet. I can at least claim to have gotten out of high school early, discovered a magical network, begun to poach it, and made inroads into various circles full of people with various forms of power who could be helpful or inconvenient depending. At age eighteen.]

[I also don't know how long you've wanted to take over the world for,] Lazarus points out.

[Well, I've been talking about it since I was ten, but I was going to go a more leisurely route before minting got dumped in my lap this past February.]

[Dare I ask why you wanted to in the first place?]

[Because it is not being operated suitably,] Bella says. [Did I not cover that? Even without magic, a lot of the problems might have been soluble. You don't see people coming down with smallpox anymore; average wealth keeps going up; we have made limited but nonzero progress on going into space - I would've just pushed on things that needed pushing.]

[You are slightly unnerving,] Lazarus observes. [But in a good way.]

[I don't think I've been called unnerving before,] Bella muses. [How goes door location hunting?]

[I think I found something, actually,] he says. [There's a kind of... weird hallway quirk... on the ground floor of my building near the stairwell. It's hard to look into but easy to get out of. Would that work?]

[Is there only one such place?] Bella says, getting up to head for the unobtrusive stairwell in her own building. [Also, is Kolya home? I presume I'll be lit up like a billboard to you even if I arrive invisible, but I'm still not down with the "unobtrusiveness" thing.]

[I'm not sure, but I think he's out,] says Lazarus. [I could go home and ask if he's there, if you're nervous about encountering him in the hallway.]

[Assuming he'll reliably reply to the question, please do.] Bella makes the door anyway. [Say when.]

[...You just made a magic door,] he observes.

[Yup! Can you see me through it?] Bella inquires.

[Extremely,] says Lazarus. He stares for a moment longer at the visually unremarkable location of invisible Bella on the other side of the door, then looks away. [For that matter, I can see the door. It's kind of... cute? And you're a little overwhelming, to be honest. The stack of powers is very analogous-to-bright. Oh, and you've got a native one under there, that's nice. Did you mention that? I forget.]

[I didn't mention it, but an addon failed for redundancy once,] said Bella. [So I figured.]

[What was the...? Oh, never mind, I see. That's elegant,] he says, smiling at an anonymous non-portal patch of wall.

[Beg pardon? I don't think you ought to be able to see an addon that failed for redudnancy; what are you looking at?]

[Your power—the native one. It's very, hmm, self-contained, which I guess is appropriate.]

[Self-contained?] prompts Bella.

[Yeah! Why am I standing here rambling, I can ramble while I go look for Kolya,] he says, turning and heading for the stairs. [Anyways. Your power. You know what it does, don't you?]

[The thing that failed for redundancy was a mental defense against spying and tampering,] Bella says. [That's the only way I know it exists at all; it doesn't make itself otherwise known to me, so I don't have much detail.]

[Well, it's very pretty,] says Lazarus. [Almost floral. And it's not inward or outward; I'd call it, hmm, exact. A defined boundary between your mind and the rest of the world. The farther away from that door I get, the weirder it is to look through it.]

[Floral,] repeats Bella, deadpan.

[Yes. Floral. Is that a problem? Would you rather I compared it to a motorbike?]

[It's just an amusing description.] Bella waits patiently to be told if the place is clear of unobtrusive folks.

Bella steps invisibly through the door, looks around, and says, [What's the apartment number? Or are you going to come all the way back and escort me?]

[514. Oh, hi, you're here now, aren't you.]

[Yep.] Bella's still invisible; she might as well fly up the stairs. She does.

[You're flying!] says Lazarus, delightedly.

[I am! That's just about the first thing I did once I had a good hex supply,] laughs Bella, landing on the fifth landing. [Here I am at your door. Can I come in?]

Bella giggles and floats in and inspects the place.

Bella de-invisibles as she skims his book titles. "You," she diagnoses, "are a reader. Or Kolya is. But given this quantity I'm going to guess both."

Bella nips the edge of her lip and appears the triangle in her hand instead of on her bandolier; she throws it to him. She could square some off the chain but that seems excessive when he didn't even specify a size. "Behold."

"My boyfriend makes most of 'em," Bella nods. "And there are a few that I just found."

"Well, I can definitely see them," he says. "If I look just the right way, the variance in number of sides is as clear as day."

"Interesting. Can you just tell that they're there or could you tell me exactly how I've got them arranged and everything?"

"At this range? I can see them as clearly as I see someone with a power standing behind me," he says. "Location and shape. So yes, I can tell how you have them arranged."

Bella grins and helps herself to a chair. "So, here's a cooperative mint. Anything else you'd like to see done?"

"My mind is suddenly blank," he says mournfully.

"Well, I have a question - did it look like anything special when I made you that triangle?"

"I think so," he says. "It was hard to tell, with all the—" he waves a hand vaguely in her direction "—noise."

"Perhaps you'll get used to it and be able to pick out more detail," Bella says encouragingly. "What do you think you saw?"

He shakes his head. "I couldn't begin to say. Maybe if I saw it a few more times?"

Bella digs her thumbnail into her opposite arm in a neat little pattern from elbow to wristbone. "I did say you could have a bagful." She pours a dozen triangles into his hands.

"That's a little bit disconcerting," he observes. "But yes, something definitely happens when you make them. I can sort it out from the noise now, but I'm not any closer to describing it coherently."

"Perhaps you could describe it incoherently," Bella says. Aikido's useful; she finds a nerve in her wrist and digs a knuckle into it. Square. She flicks it at him.

"...That was... different," he says, freeing a hand from the pile of triangles to catch the incoming square. "And even more disconcerting."

"I'll save the more-disconcerting-still demos for the boyfriend," Bella says. "I am not him. I could be relevantly similar," she pokes a pentagon, "but frankly it does not interest me to become so."

"Understandable," says Lazarus.

"You did that on purpose," he accuses, making a woeful face.

"I did," Bella admits, unrepentant.

But he is so woeful!

"Would you prefer if I did not make further gratuitous references to unsanitary ways in which my boyfriend might generate coins of assorted sizes for your investigatory purposes?" sighs Bella.

"Yes," he says firmly. "Yes, I would prefer that."

"All right then. He'll probably find that really disappointing though." She crosses her ankles. [I don't think Lazarus wants to play with you,] she reports to Alice.

"Well, he can just be disappointed, then."

[Aww,] says Alice, disappointedly. [Why not?]

"Empirically, meaning...?"

[Brainphone, remember?] she says to Lazarus, smirking.

[...That is going to take some getting used to,] says Lazarus.

[I found it pretty easy. It's tremendously useful. Saves on my cell bill too.]

[I'll bet,] he says. [But you're the one who made it in the first place, aren't you? So you're not likely to have to be reminded it exists.]

[That's true. I don't have to be reminded of things generally, anymore. Well, for the most part - perfect recall's not the same as maximally convenient memory prompts.]

[Yeah,] he says, nodding. [I can see that one, but it doesn't stand out as much as some of the others. Flight is noisy.]

[Have you read them all yet?] Bella inquires. [What else is noisy besides flying?]

[I call it "cognitive speedup". And the other one the "agony beam". The others are quieter? I'd expect the regen power to be on par with the agony beam just via wild intuitive guess.]

[No, that one's actually very subtle,] he says, shaking his head. [Almost wispy.]

[Huh, weird. Any idea why? What about my various defensive powers, how loud're they? Especially the double-layered one?]

[Double-layered one?] he asks, scrutinizing the collection.

[I'm a wee bit paranoid,] Bella says. [I don't think I wanna give you more hints until we find out what you see on your own.]

[Never mind, I see what you mean. They're not especially loud or especially quiet.]

[Other properties?] prompts Bella. [Tell me everything.]

[The one you call 'double-layered' doesn't really look double-layered to me,] he says. [I can tell two coins went into it, but only if I look very closely.]

[It did take the second hex, so there must have been something left to do,] Bella says.

[Well, yes. But it did it very, hmm, seamlessly.]

[Go on?]

[There aren't pieces of it that were added by the second hex. But there's more of it than one hex could account for, and it has a,] he makes more vague hand motions, [an extra-ness.]

[You are so spectacularly eloquent. I don't suppose you want me to be able to read your mind too? Shan't do it without permission but then I could just look at what you're looking at.]

[...You're welcome to read my power, if you think it would help,] he says. [I'd rather you stayed out of my actual thoughts.]

[I expected as much,] he admits.

[Okay, so that's not going to get anywhere unless I figure out a clever magical translation mechanism. Maybe I should just wish up a facsimile of your power, but it's clearly very complicated and you've got relevant experience and nativ-itude with it - for example, you can see my anti-magical-spying power apparently - so I think I'd rather just retain your services directly.]

[Works for me,] says Lazarus. [As long as you don't mind that I can usually explain my conclusions but not how I got to them.]

[I'll probably ask you anyway. Maybe we can figure out the right questions if we try,] Bella says optimistically.