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"Me next, what'd I get and why's it hiding?" Stella asks.

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Lazarus peers at her.

"It's not hiding," he says, "you just haven't given it anything to do. It wants to sort your coins for you and make technology behave itself in your presence, and you already have a coin bandolier and don't hang around with misbehaving technology. But you should give it all your coins, because it works much better than the bandolier."
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"Works better how, and how do I give it coins?"

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"You give it coins by having them on your person but not on your bandolier and wanting it to have them!"

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"And then it will - what?"

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"Keep them for you. A lot like the bandolier, but without them hanging off you all the time. And it'll give you the right size coins for whatever wishes you want to make, and nobody else will be able to get at them unless you want to give some away."

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"Oh, cool." Stella unclips her bandolier and lets coins, starting with the smallest, spill into her hand. They never accumulate more than two or three at a time; after that they tuck away into nothing. Eventually she's emptied her entire chain. "Er - what happens if I withdraw the aura, does anything happen to the coins?"

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"They're not in the part of the aura that does withdrawing and flaring," he says. "It won't make a difference."

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"Okay, good. I pretty much have it out all the time but that might change at some point."

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"Well, consider yourself informed."

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"Thanks! Best magic-seeing guy." Lazarus gets a hug and a peck on the cheek and Stella then teleports away.

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"Yeah, thanks," says Pattern merrily. "I guess I'll go home now. And... be a ninja movie-star? Or something."

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Lazarus giggles.

"Good luck!"
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"Thanks!" Pattern taps her earpiece and reappears in her palace, and goes on composing her letter to the the Australian Prime Minister.

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The following night, around two in the morning East Coast time, Pattern gets a brainphone message from Queenie.

[Hey, you busy?]
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[Not especially, why?]

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[Mm, the Bat found me and she's awful grumpy.]

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[Oh, for crying out loud. I'll be right there.] Bella leans on her aura and teleports in to assess the situation.

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A growling Bat has Queenie pinned against an alley wall with a gauntleted hand around her throat.

Queenie is unruffled.
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She toggles her aura from ninja to movie star. An obliging gap of the clouds aims a moonbeam right at her and a bit of a wind kicks up.

Bella clears her throat.
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The Bat whirls and glares.

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"Will you kindly put my employee down?"

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"This is your employee?"

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"Yes. Please put her down. Or I suppose we could make this conversation even less civilized?"

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The Bat puts her down.
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