"I don't know if there's a deadline like that," says Tony. "I don't know if this quest is even going to work! If there were any princes around here who fit the bill, I would've married one already and saved everybody the trouble!"

Bella chews her lip. "I don't already have a window that does husbands. It's possible I could invent one and then you wouldn't have this problem," she offers softly.

"...How do your windows work, anyway?"

"Divinatory windows in general are witchcraft. They're like mirrors, but they connect to objects in the environment that meet certain parameters instead of to other mirrors."

"So you could make a window that shows me the nearest person I could marry who'd do a good job of ruling the country and give me some kids to pass it on to?"

"I don't think I'd insert a parameter like nearest - although I could include only a limited set of locations - and I'd have to be more specific about what doing a good job of ruling the country means and I'd need to know more about who you could tolerate well enough to marry, but yes, basically."

"I'd marry you, if you were a prince," sighs Tony.

"I'm not a prince. I'm not either of the component features I'd have to be to be a prince," says Bella.

"Technically you don't have to be royal," says Tony, "our fire-witch great-and-so-on-grandma wasn't, she just spent some time as a dragon's princess and called it good..."

"I don't think I want to move in with Kexan and do domestic chores for a year to qualify. No offense."

"But that can't be the only way, right?"

"The other way to become a princess is to marry royalty, which, problematically, would see me already married to some royalty," Bella points out.

Bella blinks. And looks at Sherlock. And blinks again and tilts her head.

"What," says Sherlock, "is your opinion of politics, again?"

"I said it sounds fascinating and if I couldn't be a magician I'd probably go somewhere that would let me try it and do so," Bella says slowly.

"There are two princesses available," Sherlock observes.

"Ye-e-es. What are you thinking here, help me out, I don't know the details of princess rules except in a vague sense that I learned in another country."

"You only need to be preexisting royalty in order to become a co-ruler of the kingdom," she says. "Marrying a person of royal descent makes you a princess in a sort of junior sense, from which point, if you went on to marry another, you could one day become a queen."

"Whoa," says Tony, staring at Sherlock epiphanatically. "Whoa, hey, wait, you like her."

"What is the current queen likely to think of this notion?" Bella asks. "Assuming it is a real notion and not an idle notion."

"She is likely to have concerns about the succession," says Sherlock. "And she will want to discuss your political aspirations in great depth."

"Okay. Suppose I'm wrong about successiony things being a minor technical issue. I won't know for sure until I try and I won't try until it'd be a good idea for me to succeed. Then what?"