"I didn't love it at first - like, I don't think I would've wanted Angela's instead, she's got this aura of benevolence that made Shell Bell nearly cry - but I know, right?" She flares it a bit, then draws it back in.

"I kinda want one," says James. "Although not one like that."

"Ours are all different. We don't even know what Stella's does. And some of them we only know some of it - they mostly seem to do two things apiece, so, Shell Bell does water but we don't know what else, like I do the menace and the fire. If you want one, there's a lot of Saturn left, I'm sure Pattern would let you put in a new wing. Or I could think of something for you to do here if you give me long enough. You'd have to arrange for a channel though."

"A channel being...?"

"Somebody to funnel the enchanting through. Enchanting hurts, but as a side effect, not a fuel source like for minting. You can do it yourself but you have to maintain control of the spell at the same time so it's not a great idea. We were all using Jokers."

"Jokers seem pretty handy," says James. "Think I could borrow one?"

"You'd have to ask one. I imagine Jane would happily transmit the request. I borrowed the eponymous Joker, since Golden didn't want to use him - they do have the drawback of finding the entire thing sexy and that discomfited her so she got Eights out of Downside instead, don't know if you met her at one of the parties."

"I think I remember something about her," says James. "I don't mind if they get off on it as long as they don't expect me to do anything about that."

"They don't," Juliet confirms. "Although I think it helped them be relatively professional about it that there were, you know, eight of them present and they could keep each other company when they wanted breaks."

"Noted," she says. "Maybe I should borrow three. Rotate 'em out."

[Go ahead.]

Bella withdraws the aura. "I didn't like it at first, but it's growing on me," she says. "Stella calls it an aura of menace. You know I did almost literally come out of a Hell recently, right? I can show up in a place that till the other day thoroughly earned the name and implement policy changes."

"But you are not," he says, "a hell-demon of the most traditional variety."

"I am very nontraditionally hellish," agrees Bella. "But I think it'll work nicely for convincing various demons that they want to listen to me and not piss me off without my having to actually threaten them and periodically follow through."

"Ye-es," Giles says slowly, "I imagine it will."

"Auras are supposed to be convenient," says Bella. "Maybe that's why I have this one. They don't all match. Angela got so angely that Shell Bell almost cried. I bet it would freak people out to have me and Angela obviously working together with our auras out."

"I expect it would," says Giles.