"That's awesome," says Kas.

"As far as I can tell we do need a magical edge of some kind to do it, which is why Matilda's floating us," Bell explains. She then peers at Kas. "...I might have met one of you. But I'm not sure. He was older and had a lot of scars and my recorder only does audio."

"Well, tell me about him," says Kas. (Petaal nibbles his ear again.)

Bell shrugs and directs her recorder to the relevant conversation.

"Well, he didn't have a daemon," Bell says. "So I don't know if he's you both. I'm not sure how that works."

"You've either got a Pathalan curled up asleep inside you somewhere, or you're not one of me," says Isabella. "That's how it works."

Kas shrugs. He isn't sure his take on the matter is exactly the same as Isabella's, but he's not sure what his take on the matter exactly is, so he's not going to get into it.

Bell quits the playback. "You're good with natural things, right?" she asks Isabella. "One thing I'm worried about is the population of the Districts being able to feed themselves if the Capitol attacks that way - and it's likely, controlling us with hunger is their style, they named the Games after it. I'm wondering if you can do some sort of magic to various crops that will let them spring right back up if they're bombed or burned or something? Can you do that from a distance too?"

"That sounds... large-scale. Given enough time and a few tries and a whole hell of a lot of honey, I could definitely do that to a farm. Learning how to scale up spells in general is still on my to-do list," says Isabella regretfully. "I'm sorry. I mean, once I figure it out, if you still need it, I'll totally make another trip."

"If you need a large supply of food," says Matilda, "I can do that. I mean, assuming I see you again before another twelve years have gone by."

"I don't think we have a place to put a large supply of food - correct me if I'm wrong," she adds to the Stark twins. "Can you make a..." She gestures vaguely. "If we don't get magic so we can conjure our own food for everyone, can you make some kind of cornucopia?"

Tony shakes his head. "We've got nowhere near the storage space."

"Well, I'd have to invent one first," says Matilda, "but I'm good at inventing."

"I know! I read your papers," says Bell delightedly. "...There should really be some more effective way to network through Milliways. I wonder if Bar can tell who's an alt of who? Hand out keys to a shared room based on that? There should totally be a..." She snickers. "A Bell-tower. With a guestbook that asks for species and unique nickname and stuff."

"That's adorable."

"That is adorable."

Kas cracks up.

"Since you're occupied with floating, I can go ask, if there's... someone to ask?"

"Oh! The bar herself is sapient. Just go up to it and talk and you'll get napkins with her reply written on it," says Bell.

"Oh...kay," says Isabella, and to the bar she goes.

"Hey," says Kas, "can I hear some more of you talking to other-me?"

"Uh, some more, sure, I'm not sure if you want the... whole thing."

"...Why wouldn't I?"

Bell sighs. "Well. A ways in he handed me a shotgun and asked me to shoot him with it. It was pretty weird."