"You were right," says the Joker, giving Brilliance snuggly scritches.

"Anyway, I think Lexi is right about minting the two of us at least, unless there's some drawback to being a mint," Bella says.

"I mentioned about the big coins, right?" he says. "Anything with more than six points will blow up if you try to use it. Star'll probably just kill you, next one up'll maybe eat your whole planet, the one after that would probably take a bite out of the galaxy. There's a trick to 'em, but you've got me around to handle that until you find the rest of the Bells, so I think I'll let 'em tell you themselves."

"Okay," says Bella, "but me and Lexi aren't liable to make big coins anyway, so that's not a drawback to being a mint anyway, the coins are obviously storeable or you couldn't have handed me this one." She holds up her triangle. "If they'd tell us anyway, why don't you just tell us now?"

"'Cause I don't know how they'd wanna deal with you," he nods to Lexi, "and they mmmmight take it amiss if I guessed, but I don't wanna tell one or two of you and not all three."

"Are you saying," Bella says, "that there is some realistic probability that they will only want me to have this information if I promise not to tell my sister?"

"You know," he says, "when you put it like that, it sounds so much less friendly." He checks that they are not under any kind of observation by outside parties. "The trick is, all the coins bite back a little, but stars are the only ones where it's big enough to notice. You can use a coin to knock the teeth out of one that's the next size up, or a bunch that're the same size, or a big bunch that're smaller. So a hex'll make a safe star, and a safe star'll make a safe - they call 'em evils, you'll see why - and a safe evil'll make a safe arrow, ditto. And if you feel like being extra careful, you can wish your hexes safe too and maybe you won't get hit by cars so often."

"Thank you. Hit by cars? Is that an - attractor I have to worry about?"

"Probably. One'a the Bells died of it. She got better, but it'd be all kindsa inconvenient, don'tcha think?" He wiggles his fingers. "You're all minted, by the way."

"Thanks - how do I make a coin, then?"

"You hurt yourself, and move it across your mind - you'll see what I mean - and want the coin to be somewhere. It can appear anywhere that's touching you. I know a few people who make 'em in their sleep a lot, so you don't have to know where you want it, but if you don't it might land somewhere uncomfortable."

"Across my -" Bella hmms and digs a fingernail into her palm. "Okay, that's weird, but -" She turns her hand over and now she's holding two triangles, the one the Joker gave her and one in an aurora pattern.

"Pretty," says the Joker. He pets Brilliance. "How 'bout you, hon?"

Bella catches it. "Mana color," she identifies aloud. "Lexi, what'd you get?"

Lexi bites her knuckle and turns up a peach-colored triangle with a satiny texture. She hands hers to Bella too. "Neato," she says.

"There's some other fun things on the market, too. Like the brainphone. Who wants a brainphone?"

"I think we already have one of those, does this one have special features?"

"Lets you put up a busy message so people can't bug ya. Does text or voice. Tells you who's calling and who-all's listening if it's a conference call. Does conference calls."

"Okay, that sounds like an improvement unless Brilliance has been holding back on me about magephone features. And probably is anyway, since he automatically eavesdrops on that. Cool. Let's have it."

He makes a little explosion-like gesture with one hand. [Poof!]

Bella runs a quick test of the brainphone with Lexi, then says, "Cool, thanks."

"Welcome," he says sunnily.

"Anything else I should know about how coins work?"

"Well, if you end up with any big ones, you probably wanna find somewhere to keep 'em. Invisible necklaces are the going thing, but maybe you'll come up with something better."