"If I were any more trigger-happy than I actually am, you would have rendered me hostile by now," Bella says. "You can, as it stands, salvage the situation, and I am more than happy to let you try, but my hostility is not a static quantity that has nothing to do with whether you attempt any self-fulfilling prophecies about it. And that's what the security wishes are for."

"I don't need security wishes. But you already know that, because you are not a stupid person," says Libby. "My concern is for everyone else, not for me."

"You're safe; you're not invisible. You would protect the rest of your network by being defended against spying, that's what I meant - if attempts to magically learn about you bounced off, you couldn't be referred to by any wish that tried to learn about your friends and family. If you got a throwaway email address and no amount of throwing coins at the question would tell me anything about you that you didn't want me to find, then you'd look nervous, maybe, but not sinister."

"I'm tempted to turn any new mints I find over to you."

Bella chuckles. "Are you really? But you don't trust me, as you've repeatedly had to remind me."

"I started out not trusting you. Right now, I trust you enough to be having this conversation, which is a fair bit, let me tell you."

"How much? I mean, you're safe. I could be very dangerous to people in general and none too happy with you, and you'd still be safe. Native trumps."

"When I find someone I consider dangerous, I don't offer them information about important things that are secrets to most people. It just seems like a fundamentally bad idea."

"Fair enough. Although speaking of secrecy, I'm somewhat curious why you want to have this conversation in a coffee shop. I imagine most people would think we're talking about some manner of fiction if they listen to us at all, but you keep other seams in your operation snug enough that I'm surprised even that little hazard sits comfortably."

"We're covered," she says.

"Oh? How?"

"Anti-spying ward."

"Have you got one just generally? I don't know, you see, because I have never attempted to spy on you."

"I can't imagine why not."

"As a general rule, I do not spy on people. I might do it if I had a good reason, but I never default to it."

"Good to know," says Libby.

"I'd imagine. Are you going to answer my question?"

"Yes, I have an anti-spying ward."

"But you said mine was the best you've ever seen. Did I do a better job of wish-designing or did I throw more magic at it?"

"Guess again."

"You were trying particularly intrusive spying and ran into the edge of my brain? You weren't counting yours because it is not a ward you have encountered in the wild? Mine doesn't cover random people in coffeeshops and therefore has more juice to do everything else, so mine is only better within a limited context?" Bella guesses gamely.

"Not quite, but close," she says. "Mine is only active when I need it to be. It's not as pervasive as yours, but that's a feature, not a bug."

"I can see how that might be useful sometimes. It's not my style, though."

"Clearly."

Bella changes the subject. "How many people with native powers are there running around that I haven't heard about yet?"