"Everything about all of it will take all day. Unless we bring in Elspeth. Golden, you wanna bring in Elspeth?"

"Is Sarion your last name or something? Unusual last name for a Bell," Aegis remarks in an undertone to Sarion.

"No. It means I am an elf and I do elf magic," murmurs Sarion. "None of you are elves; I presumed it a safe choice."

"My daughter," Golden says to Magania, "has a bit of her own individual magic, which allows her to transmit a great deal of information very quickly. Would - perhaps you would like to meet her and receive your explanation more swiftly than we're likely to be able to manage without inquiries to guide us."

"Golden's daughter's power is a little like my aura," adds Cam, flaring, "she's basically so good at telling the truth that it's a superpower."

"It would please me very much to meet your daughter, Golden."

Golden has a brief brainphone conversation with Jane, and then says, "She'll be along presently."

"I want to know what elfmages can do," says Pattern.

"Nothing like what you can do, but we have certain talents," laughs Sarion. "I can - manipulate the elements, or living things, or search for things I wish to find. And before I was properly a sarion I was a practitioner of the small magics; that is how I made my ribbons."

"You'll be able to do what we do," says Amariah. "Well, not all of it - my magic's not transmissible, neither is Cam's, although you can learn his magic language, just not do magic with it, and we can't replicate native-quality mental opacity, unfortunately - but you'll be an enchantress and a mint just like us, you have a Janegem now and she'll help you just like us, because you are one of us."

"I wonder if we'll be able to learn either of the elf kinds of magic," muses Angela. "It's always nice to have more kinds."

"It has never before been possible for one who is not an elf to command the elven magics," says Magania, "but you are all capable of extraordinary things."

Elspeth appears, crowned and smiling. "Hello, Magania! I'm Elspeth," she says to Magania. "It would be - useful for calibrating - if I knew approximately how fast your brain works relative to a human's."

"I have never had occasion to observe such a difference," says Magania.

"Okay, I'll go human-speed then," says Elspeth. And she pokes along a piecemeal summary of how minting, enchanting, wizarding, witching, Slaying, angels, Milliways, worlds, and Jane work. It's from and for the perspective of someone who's not going to do any of the above herself, on an overview sort of level, without going into detail about things like coins being made of pain or enchanting involving much of same or Jane being sort of Aegis and Sue's kid. And she throws in a nice pamphlet-sized history synopsis of how the peal came to be a peal instead of a lot of separate Bells.

"That," says Magania, blinking, "is extremely informative."

"Thanks! That's what I'm good at," says Elspeth, beaming and helping herself to a rock to sit on. She's got a necklace of golden squares around her neck, perfectly visible, and it jingles.

"I volunteer to try swiping Sarion's magic-types if nobody else wants to go first," says Pattern.

There is a sound in the distance, as of a deerlike creature deliberately making as much noise as it possibly can while bounding toward them at top speed.

"Something on four legs is about to visit us," observes Golden.

"Ah," sighs Sarion, "and I had believed that the part of my life informed by unicorn intervention was over."

"Does that add up to 'no, Pattern, wait, let's talk to the unicorn first'?"

"Yes."

Isibel gets up.