"Hmm. Does yours have magic? At all?"

"Yes she does," says Libby. "She's a mint—that's a more generally applicable kind of magic than the usual run of native powers. But she's not the only mint I know."

"She doesn't have Mama's mental opacity? I hope you don't prefer her as a world empress because she'd be mind-controllable or something."

"She hasn't admitted to having your mother's mental opacity, but I bet she does anyway," says Libby.

"Do you know why she hasn't mentioned it?"

"I don't think she trusts me yet."

"Why not?"

"When two very wary people meet each other, it's hard to be the first one to do the good-faith thing. So naturally, I'm cheating," she says, gesturing between herself and Elspeth.

"But I'm just not sure how it could harm her to own up to having that power. Granted I'm at a disadvantage understanding reasons people have to not say true things," muses Elspeth.

"Oh, I agree that it doesn't make a lot of sense for her to keep that particular thing to herself. But I find it totally reasonable that she's being generally paranoid."

"Have you asked her about it, or do you not want to admit that you know?" chuckles Elspeth. "But, I don't know, is she an especially good 'mint'? What does being a good mint consist of?"

"There's a few different ways to be a good mint," she says. "The main one lacking among the mints I know is output, but if she's especially productive, she hasn't dmonstrated that to me. Then again, I can see why she wouldn't."

"Output... of...? I'm trying to be helpful, but I can't pull all facts out of thin air."

"Coins," she says. "Mints generate coins that allow people to make wishes. A good mint is either especially good at wishing, or especially good at producing coins."

"I bet she's very good at wishing," Elspeth says, after a beat.

"Oh, I bet she is too. But I already know enough people who are good at wishing that I don't think that would be a major point in her favour."

Elspeth shrugs. "So maybe she's good at the mysterious coin-making process?"

"Could be," says Libby. "The mysterious coin-making process involves turning pain into wishes. How good do you think she'd be at that?"

Elspeth frowns. "Not... unusually good, I don't think. I mean, she'd be motivated to try, to get magic, but... much to my dismay, if she were into that, I would know."

"Should I not ask?"

"It's worth something," says Libby. "Okay, so we know Bella is probably not an unusually productive mint... does she know an unusually productive mint, I wonder?"

"Maybe, but I can't help you there, I don't think," Elspeth says.

"I guess not," says Libby.

"Maybe mint magic just works better for her style of world-ruling than having to coordinate with a lot of witches does," suggests Elspeth.