"That's okay," says Keziah, laughing softly.

Junia smiles tentatively back.

Micaiah grins.

"Um, I can answer questions," Keziah adds, "Mom and Dad have been telling me about all those people half my life. Dad and Dars might remember them better than me though since she was older when we saw them last."

Junia glances at Micaiah.

"See you guys later," he says cheerfully, and off he trots.

Keziah's wings flutter a little.

"...I do not especially know where to start," says Junia, glancing sidelong at Keziah.

"...Once upon a time there was a mysterious door," says Keziah, turning pink as she recites a bedtime story she heard before she knew it was true. "It was supposed to lead to a hallway, but it did not. Instead, it led to a place in the center of everything, everywhere, that could touch doors so far away that no one from nearby knew they existed."

"It's just how my mom used to tell the story before she told me it was true," squirms Keziah, blushing fiercely. "Um, and then the protagonists of the story who later turned out to be Mom and Dad went through the door, and they met - Amariah first, she wasn't in the group you saw. And Amariah keeps her soul in a talking owl and she has a flying tree branch instead of wings and she can do magic - not the kind we have, a kind she gets for being a witch which is a thing in her world."

"A flying tree branch?" says Junia, fascinated. "Does it fly because it is magic?"

"Yeah. There's magic in a lot of worlds, and it all works different. Mom has - like - sort of two and a half kinds - two kinds that do a lot of things and one kind that only does one thing - or, no, there's also a magic language she knows but she doesn't use it much - and there are more that aren't as easy to share around."

"What are all these kinds? Which is the one that does only one thing?"

"The kind I use is called minting, and it makes little wish coins that you can spend on wishes," says Keziah. "I don't make them, I just get them from Mom and Dad. There's also enchanting. And she can make people immortal with the kind that only does one thing."

"That sounds extremely useful," notes Junia. "How does it work?"

"The immortaling one? I haven't tried it, but, I don't know, if I was out and I got struck by lightning - then I'd just - be okay instead of dead, it would reset me."

"Wow," says Junia. "How does the making people like that work?"

"There's a person in another world who can make people able to do that, and all the people who are my mom can."

"All the people who are your mom," Junia repeats. "This is extremely strange, have I mentioned that recently?"

"Yes," giggles Keziah.

Junia grins at her.

"They're Bells. Me and my alt decided to be Griffins - she has a pet one and I would too if magic wasn't secret. That was when we were seven, I don't know, maybe we'll think of something better now. Dars and her alt couldn't think of anything and the last time there was a Bell party Ariel and Pen were too little to go and there weren't more of them anyway. There might still not be. Depends how many Bells who have alts of my dad - those're called Jokers - have the right number of kids."

"It's all so - bizarre," says Junia. "Why are there alts of different people? Are there alts of everyone's parents and their parents' parents and so on back along into forever? How did all these people meet each other despite not being exactly quite alike?"

"All the Bells have the same parents. I don't think the grandparents match as close. I don't know why there are alts at all, though. I'm not sure what you mean by the last thing?"