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Bella's public facing email address (eor@eor.eor; many of the Bells are following similar protocols to Stella's, for web presence, and in Origin the relevant empire is called the Empire of Rings, after Saturn's feature) gets a lot of mail. Jane used to help with it; without Jane, there is still extremely smart filtering going on, and a program no one has noticed at work yet auto-responds to almost everything with canned but tweakable responses and links to the imperial website.
This still leaves a lot of emails every day she has to deal with herself, although some of them allow her to make gentle adjustments to Jane's program to handle future inquiries of the same kind. The number goes up over time. Slipstick's still on the lookout for a suitable secretary type person to help out. Until then, Bella leans on super-speed.
She has had to address the rumors about being able to raise the dead. It's a frustrating, narrow line to walk, between lying, explaining too much, and getting everyone's hopes up. Currently the FAQ has a section that looks like this:
Can you raise the dead?
Eventually, I'd like to be able to do that for everyone's departed loved ones. I'm working on it as fast as I can, but today all I can deploy are public health measures and, on a smaller scale, immortality, for people who are currently alive.
I heard you were dead and brought yourself back to life / I heard someone else was dead and you brought them back to life!
This is an exaggeration. I'm immortal; if I suffer lethal damage, the thing I do is called 'torching', not 'dying'. The same is true of other people who I've made able to torch.
I want to be able to torch.
There's a waiting list, but this is something I can do. Just fill out the form and my staff will process your application; if everything checks out the current wait time for getting into a torching batch is about four months.
I don't want to torch, but I want to stop aging.
This is also available, but the waiting list is longer; apply here.
Are you sure you can't raise the dead?
I really, really wish I could do that for everyone who asks. I maintain a waiting list of people whose resurrection has been particularly requested so that as soon as I have this capability I'll know who to use it for first.
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bellfounding
tearingup
"It's important to me," he mutters, rubbing his face with both hands. "Important to Rayne, too, for that matter. I can't imagine him running to the press about it; his only interest in your entire scheme as far as I could tell was getting me to shut up about Randall already."
bellfounding
"Randall? I don't read ninety-five percent of the emails that go to my public address, if Ethan wrote in about him before."
bellfounding
"Another one? I've been kind of busy on the public health front and the prime minister let me put anti-car-crash magic on the U.K. last June, what happened?"
tearingup
"Randall ODed on dream seven—no, eight months ago," he says. "Ethan got shot - the, the night before last—"
His voice wavers. He squeezes his eyes shut and presses his clenched fist against his mouth.
His voice wavers. He squeezes his eyes shut and presses his clenched fist against his mouth.
bellfounding
Bella sighs.
"Okay. How many people know Ethan got shot? Did he turn up in the morgue with ID on him, has he got family...?"
"Okay. How many people know Ethan got shot? Did he turn up in the morgue with ID on him, has he got family...?"
tearingup
He takes his hand away from his mouth after a few seconds, shaking his head.
"Just me, whoever - did it, and whoever helped him hide the body," he says.
"Just me, whoever - did it, and whoever helped him hide the body," he says.
bellfounding
"So - you, Ethan, and some people who'd have to confess to crimes to tell anyone?"
bellfounding
"Yeah, all right, I can spare it." She pulls an evil out of her coinsorter.
She wishes on it.
It doesn't go.
She frowns at it.
"...How sure are you he's dead?"
She wishes on it.
It doesn't go.
She frowns at it.
"...How sure are you he's dead?"
tearingup
"As sure as it gets," he says. "I heard it - I was ten feet away - is your magic not working?"
bellfounding
"It's worked for bringing people back before, and that's not the kind of thing that would change for no reason. You heard it? You didn't, for example, see it."
tearingup
Slowly, he shakes his head.
"Someone got shot, and I heard them arguing first, and Rayne... knew I was there..."
Realization dawns. "That rat bastard," he hisses.
"Someone got shot, and I heard them arguing first, and Rayne... knew I was there..."
Realization dawns. "That rat bastard," he hisses.
bellfounding
"Well," says Bella, putting the evil away with a flick of her hand, "as long as I'm here, anything else need doing?"
tearingup
"Yeah, could you drag Ethan back here for me?" he just about growls. "The absolute fucking shit - he did this because I wouldn't email you about Randall, you know, he actually went and faked his own death to get me talking to you."
bellfounding
"Why did he want you talking to me? Is it just about Randall, did he bounce off my filter a couple times and want you to give it a shot?"
tearingup
"He bounced off your filter once," says Ripper, "two months ago, and apparently his backup plan was to murder his ex-dealer, because of course it was!" He throws up his hands. "Heaven forbid that Ethan Rayne ever do something sane and normal!"
tearingup
"He hasn't murdered anyone before," Ripper clarifies hastily, and then amends, "that I know of. It's just... not as much of a shock as I'd like it to be."
bellfounding
"Is the ex-dealer a great loss to society of any kind?"
bellfounding
"All right, then he can wait for general admission. You just want Rayne yoinked here?"
bellfounding
"You don't, for example, want him landed out in the hall and instructed to knock."
