Elspeth bursts out laughing. "So what's she up to?" she asks through giggles. "She doing okay? Gosh, it's hard to imagine her without my dad, I don't even have anyone else's memories of her from before she met him."

"She seems pretty happy, from what I can tell. She's studying something or other at Stanford."

"So she did go to college early. Cool. I almost want to meet her but that would probably weird her out. And I'm not sure if the time will be what I expect it to be when I come home, if I leave the bar for another world."

"Yeah, somehow I don't think 'I met your daughter while you were in the bathroom, do you want to say hi?' would go over well."

Elspeth laughs again. "I could explain it to her - unless yours is a witch too, and would block me too even if I never tried to hit her with anything with side effects?" Elspeth shrugs. "But I'd sure think it was strange if someone brought me my future kid from another world whose dad I'd never meet."

"Exactly," Libby agrees.

"So are you going to help her take over the world?" asks Elspeth. "And I wonder why you'd find yours a better world dictator than mine..."

"Most of this conversation has been you interviewing for the position of world dictator on her behalf," says Libby. "Needless to say, she passed."

"Oh my word, are you serious?" guffaws Elspeth. "Oh, that's hilarious, she'll think that's the funniest thing... Do you know what the difference is between yours and mine, though, in terms of which you'd rather have ruling the world?"

"...You know, I'm not entirely sure," she says. "I could make a guess or two, maybe. Mine might be more naturally inclined to be friendly to me if I help her take over the world, for example, although I bet that's not it."

"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.