"I can, yes, although if you want me to look more thoroughly instead of just again I'll need prep time to add a new lens to my spectacles or research some other sort of divination."

"About how long would that take? I'm thinking of sending you with the delegation. Practical experience," she says.

"Oh! Um, I'm about halfway through figuring out how to wrestle a dwarf spell into a lens, and given the gorgeous design on the armor Tony made I bet she can help me and shave a week off the time. If I just do that and don't make myself new moccasins so I can walk without tripping, or a flying carpet, I can probably have it done in a couple of days. Help from one of the princesses, or maybe you, could get me up to version two on the item-reading lens that uses fire-witch principles, but I haven't been actively looking into that recently so it'd take a little longer. And I've been meaning to add a lens or two enchanted with dragon spells but I've been putting it off in the hopes that I could get my friend Kexan to introduce me to King Kazul so I could ask for a look at the King's Crystal, which has yet to happen. Non-lens-based divinations, it depends on what exactly you want me to look for."

"We can probably wait for the dwarf lens," says the queen. "I don't have a specific notion of what you should be looking for, but I like information and I like more information better."

"I also," Bella adds, snapping her fingers in sudden memory, "now have an intact wizard staff that's not a discard to play with - did Sherlock mention this? - and I haven't started inspecting it yet, but there could be some kind of divination wrapped up in there that I can apply to myself or to a new lens, and it would probably be ideal for checking out what wizards are up to if I can make the adaptation."

"That sounds like a longer-term project to me," says the queen. "But I'd be interested to see what you could dig up with it."

"It could take a very long time," Bella admits, "mostly because there might not be anything like what I'd be looking for in the staff, but I've had staff fragments pass through my possession before and sometimes things rise to the surface right away. It's probably at least worth an hour checking that out before I start working on the dwarf lens full time. ...Should it be full time, are we in enough of a hurry that I should skip the moccasins and the carpet?"

"The official delegation will be going sometime this week," says the queen. "I'd rather you were able to accompany it without falling over."

"Okay. I've already asked for the material I need to make them. It won't take long, since I've done it before and I have all the beads and my sewing kit. I can get started on a preliminary check of the staff and talking to Tony about dwarf magic before the imitation leather arrives."

"Aren't you efficient," the queen says approvingly.

"Well, I haven't figured out immortality yet, and it's the next best thing," says Bella brightly.

The queen laughs.

"Is there anything else I should learn or have prepared before the delegation goes out?" Bella asks.

"Nothing crucial. Use your judgment."

"Always," says Bella, and she sweeps into a completely incompetent curtsy and departs to get to work on the staff.