"I know very little about royal magic, really, since it won't respond to me - I can look at it but not use it in any sort of spell, and there are so few books on it. I can't wait, I'm excited." There is a bounce to her step.

"I have what you might call a royal sense of direction," says Sherlock, "but less success using it to accomplish practical effects."

"My limited and rumor-based theoretical understanding probably can't help you very much, but I could try?" says magic person.

"Thank you," says Sherlock. "Perhaps later."

"Okay," says magic person agreeably. "So have you had an eventful whimsy-based quest that might or might not yield husbands so far?"

"Not especially, no."

"No? How long have you been at it?"

"A week."

"And you haven't run into any mischievous elves or lost panthers or would-be bandits or lost dukes' children from Kasselthwaite? I'm surprised."

"I'm not."

"Why not?"

"Because when Sherry doesn't wanna meet anybody in the Enchanted Forest, she doesn't."

"Really! Now how do you manage that?" inquires Bella, who will now be narrated with her name despite the fact that her traveling companions don't know it.

"I go where they are not."

"That seems logical, but how do you know where they won't be?"

"It is obvious."

"...Is this an obscure royal magic sense, or...?"

"Near as anybody can tell, nope," says Tony. "She's just really good at noticing things. Not that the royal magic doesn't help."

"Huh. You'd have to be extraordinarily good at noticing things to avoid running into anyone in a week's walk through the forest. And that's if the forest didn't decide to throw anybody at you a bit more forcefully than usual. If you were feeling so antisocial how come you came up to my house?"

"Your house," says Sherlock, "was interesting. And there was that squirrel."

"What exactly did you ask the squirrel for directions to?"

"Someone interesting."

Bella giggles. "I try to be that, yes."

"You succeed."

Bella is inestimably pleased by this compliment. "Cricket said you thought I was a witch."