a city and a mint who sleep very little between them

self_composed

"Thank you," says Bella politely.

prima-sequentem

"How did you two become mints?"

self_composed

"Magic," says Bella languidly.

[Lazarus, it has occurred to me that my Emergency Plan For What If Alice Goes Rogue will not work. Since you've seen his ingot power, perhaps you can help me come up with a replacement that will not have the same defect?]

prima-sequentem

"You found a pair of sixes," she translates. "Or one six, which you took a while to duplicate."

Rook

nonbird

[...Dare I ask what the original plan was?]

self_composed

[Original plan was take his coins and then take his ability to experience pain. Directly taking minting powers away doesn't work, at least not without stars. But his touch-don't-change thing would not likely take kindly to something like that.]

"Yes," Bella acknowledges. "We've been calling them hexes, though."

Rook

nonbird

[Yes. It's safe to say that any plan that involves taking away one of Alice's senses is not going to work. Also, why do you have a plan for what if Alice goes rogue? Is he likely to?]

prima-sequentem

"Cute," says Libby. "What do you call the others?"

self_composed

"Triangles, squares, pentagons, stars."

[I don't know about likely, but if he did, it wouldn't be a petty falling out where he'd move to Milwaukee and badmouth me to the neighbors. His interest in keeping me happy stands between him and serious mayhem. He is naturally inclined towards serious mayhem. Can I make it so he cannot come into direct physical contact with coins, and thereby can't make wishes? A very thin film of no-coins-allowed-beyond-this-point around his skin?]

prima-sequentem

"Stars," she repeats. "I like it."

Rook

nonbird

[Maybe,] says Lazarus. [His power wouldn't prevent it, anyway. Do you need direct physical contact...? Yes, I guess you do. What about when you make coins?]

self_composed

[When you make coins, they appear on your person, but I imagine I could design the film so it'd scoot them away faster than his reaction time,] Bella says. [He doesn't have my cognitive speedup. It'd be risky, I'd like a better idea or a supplementary one...]

"It seemed obvious," Bella says.

Rook

nonbird

[Can you make a wish directly, without coining it first?]

prima-sequentem

"It certainly is now that you mention it."

self_composed

[No. The action you take with the pain makes a coin; you can put it where you want, I used to appear them inside my socks so they wouldn't be noticeable. I tried turning pain into a wish instead of a wishcoin and it didn't work.]

"I do wish you'd tell me why you believe those to be dangerous," Bella sighs.

prima-sequentem

"Because they are," says Libby.

self_composed

"Have you used one?"

prima-sequentem

"I do wish you'd stop trying to pry information out of me that I don't want to give you."

Rook

nonbird

[Can coins break?] he wonders next, somewhat distracted from the original subject.

self_composed

[I don't know. Do you have some left? Want to try it for me?]

"Yes, well, I wish the set of such pieces of information were dramatically smaller," says Bella.

prima-sequentem

"You've made that very clear."

Rook

nonbird

[I am somewhat worried about what would happen if I managed it,] he says. [And no.]

self_composed