"...Why, what's the matter with him?" Elspeth asks.

"He can readily generate a great deal more of our sort of magic than we can," Bella says. "I suppose I could implement emergency protocols first, but that would have the disadvantage of him learning what they are."

"Well, would you want to bring Alice?"

"Maybe. I'm not sure. It would be interesting, I imagine."

"We don't have to bring him on our first visit, anyway."

"True."

"Mama might easily choose to make exceptions on the basis of how friendly you seem - especially to Dad, who reads minds - after a first meeting," Elspeth says. "There are plenty of people who work for her who wouldn't pass the strict test."

"I am extremely friendly," Libby says brightly. "Especially to quasi-granddaughters."

"If I can't get along with a version of myself, I can't get along with anyone," Bella says. "And I get along with some people. So I can get along with your mama. Q.E.D."

Elspeth giggles. "Okay. Well, if you can... unmagic yourselves enough that I can convince Jacob you're kosher, we can try it that way."

"Libby, you said holding the door open works even after it's been closed once. We could take turns going out and stashing our coins now," Bella suggests. "If we don't want to wait for the next appearance of Milliways-with-an-Elspeth-in-it."

"Sure," Libby says agreeably. "How are you going to stash yours?"

"Treasure chest from good old Elias," Bella says.

"Good old Elias indeed. I'll probably have to spend a pentagon to get mine stored away—do you mind...?"

Bella shrugs and hands one over. "How do you keep yours normally?"

Bella goes to the door. She makes her agony beam toggleable with an expenditure of a pentagon - by her only. Then she toggles it, and puts her remaining pentagons and hexes and stars away too, not without some trepidation but without too much delay either. The rest of her standing powers aren't harmful. Mere aikido skill and super-speed probably will not faze vampires and werewolves.

Bella doesn't think there's a whole lot she can say in self-defense here. If they were willing to trust her disinterest in harming them, they wouldn't be doing this. "I can go put my squares away, too; I can still make them, but that will cut my reaction time," she says tonelessly.

"That might be best for the first visit," says Elspeth sympathetically.

"Since I have nothing on me that can move stuff as far as the treasure chest from here, I'll have to teleport; Libby, hold the door for me?"

Bella goes, and teleports to where the treasure chest is currently living in an extremely otherwise inaccessible section of Moonstone Palace. She squares off all the other squares and teleports back to Libby's living room, feeling extremely naked in nothing but clothes and a string of triangles and tempted to punch the wall or bite her lip or dig her knuckle into her wrist right then.

Libby winces in empathy.