"Do all the worlds have... weird, unexpected things about them like that?" wonders Lycaelon.

"Not all of them. But they do have many strange properties. And people from them think many things about Thilanushinyel are strange, too."

"Like what?"

"Dragonbonds. The way Wild Magic works - High Magic bears more resemblance to some offworld forms than does Wild Magic. The way unicorns communicate with the Wild Magic. The other and better-known property of unicorns. Our persistent problem with the Dark."

"Our problem with the Dark is a lot less persistent than it used to be," he comments.

"...Interrupt it how?"

"I do not yet know. But I probably have about a thousand years to locate assorted avenues by which it might reappear and places where it may yet lurk and preemptively destroy them."

He gives her a studying look.

"It looks as though you may harbor thoughts on this subject."

Lycaelon laughs. "You caught me," he says. "I'm thinking that seems kind of ambitious."

"I am," says Isibel, "kind of ambitious."

...He cracks up.

Still giggling.

"All of me are. It is a Bell thing," Isibel volunteers.

"Well, good luck rooting out the Dark," he snorts. "Maybe you can get tips from the rest of you, if you see them again."

"Yes. Or from my unicorn friend; he is routinely helpful."

"You're friends with a unicorn?"

"Yes. His name is Liselen."

"I don't have much to do with unicorns," says Lycaelon. "I've healed them a few times. Uncomfortable for everybody. They sure are pretty, though."

"Oh, Liselen in particular is not uncomfortable around the things that bother other unicorns."

"One of my friends wished it, when they first came here," she explains.

"I thought it might be something like that," he says. "Does it work the other way around, do you think? Wishing someone not uncomfortable to unicorns even though...? Because that would make a big difference when it comes to healing them."