"It's okay," says Amariah. "I'd rather have Pathalan where I can talk to him than not. And me and Path, and your alt and his daemon, are all okay now."

"Good," he says, snuggling her some more.

"How's your Bell doing since you last wrote?" Amariah asks.

"Good," he says. "We both graduated to Tactical, but then I graduated to Command and I haven't seen her since."

"...Because solitary confinement, not because of some kind of falling-out?"

"Because Command is on the other end of the solar system?"

"Oh. That's a hike, yes, I could see that being a problem if you can't teleport," says Amariah, laughing a little. "Well, hopefully she'll graduate soon too."

"Yeah, hope so," he says. "I miss her."

"I bet she misses you too," says Amariah.

"Bet she does," he agrees.

"Ah, I wish there was something else I could do to help you," sighs Amariah. "You look just like my Kas, only a bit younger, and I hate to think of him shut up somewhere with no company... and Kas at least would have Petaal, that's his daemon."

"Maybe I should go to your world," he snorts.

"You know what, if you want to I'll open the door for you, but - their standing opinion is that it's not worth it in a world with no daemons. If you had a daemon, she'd be a lot like you, you know, your soul - and nobody but you could touch her without hurting you, unless they were closer-than-close already. And I assume you'd have to hide her, too, she'd have to be little shapes and tucked away all the time."

"But I could touch her," he says. "And that'd be better than what I've got."

"Right now she's - curled up inside you asleep somewhere," Amariah says, "or you'd be a zombie, not a whole person, and right now she doesn't need things - affection, attention, people to talk to - except through you, because she's asleep. You'd be taking one very bad situation and making it a slightly less bad but duplicated situation, and it's not like you could put her away again after you had her out once. I'd recommend talking to Kas and Petaal about it."

"Okay," he shrugs.

"I'll go get them," Amariah says, and she releases Sue and heads for the door and sticks her head out. [Hey Kas! I found a fifteenish you and he's been locked up in solitary, come help me keep him company and be advicey on possibly bringing him briefly into our world so he can get a daemon and not be so lonesome?]

"Over there," says Amariah, pointing. "Sue! These are Kas and Petaal. Sweeties, this is Sue."

"Hi," says Sue, still hugging himself.

Kas teleports over and gives him a great big snuggly hug.

Amariah goes and sits back down where she was a moment ago. "Sue's got a Bell, but they attend school across the solar system from each other so they haven't seen each other in a long time," she says.

He leans on Kas and closes his eyes and just... pushes the mess that is his feelings.

"Book says the word is 'mutant' and not technically magical," Amariah says.