It lurks. Oh how it lurks.
"I am not an ingot," says Libby. "Lazarus is, though. He... I'll go with 'sees'... he sees magic."
She gets her handshake. Her face falls.
"He would be willing to visit," says Libby. "Are you enthusiastic about magic? You could be enthusiastic about magic together."
"Understatement," mutters Elspeth.
"Sounds like a good idea to me," Bella agrees. "Is there any known way to summon Milliways or does it just appear at apparent random?"
"There are people known to be able to summon Milliways," says Libby. "I'm not one of them."
"Nobody here, that I know of," Elspeth says, "but I met a lady who I think might have been a version of Addy in there once who said she could. And I think if she couldn't she would have just lived there all the time."
"I've met a few people who can," says Libby. "Or at least, they said so and I had no reason to disbelieve them. Nobody we know, though."
"The Addy I met said she spent a while pleading first, but she did this the first time she ever found the bar, so she doesn't know if that had anything to do with it," Elspeth said.
"One of mine claimed it all started when she stole a salt shaker," Libby recalls. "And that she carries said shaker around as a good luck charm. The other two were less inclined to theorize."
"How much would the bar be likely to mind if I stole a saltshaker?" Bella asks thoughtfully.
"I wouldn't do it," Elspeth says. "But that's less about me having expectations that she'd mind and more about stealing not being nice and the bar being nice."
"I've never tried. The petty thief in question didn't mention anything either way. At a guess, though, I'd say she wouldn't care much."
Golden Bella pats his hand and says, "Since no one present can summon Milliways, I suppose we'll accommodate you here as long as it takes for someone to find it. Do... ingots? No, only Bella is an ingot. What is it that you both are? Do you require any particular amenities that ordinary humans don't?"
"Mints. We're mints. I don't require all the amenities that ordinary humans do - for instance, it is not necessary that I sleep - but basically if you handle us like humans you won't be far wrong," Bella shrugs.
"Even more so in my case," says Libby, "because I still have mortal requirements like food and sleep."
"Oh, I still need to eat, I haven't gotten around that one yet," Bella says. "I like food and it's easy enough to conjure even if I'm without for some reason."
"You should be aware," Elspeth says, "that since you're girls, unless you're sterile, there is some - not a huge - chance that a wolf will imprint on one of you. Some people wouldn't welcome that."
"I am sterile, albeit reversibly," Bella says. "It seemed like the sort of thing it would be wise to take care of in advance. Libby? Wolf village or ask 'em to get us a hotel room?"