[He promised that he'd be returned to Pattern in good condition,] adds Juliet, singsong.

[I don't doubt it.]

[Might also be a factor that Origin, being a non-magical not-especially-spacey world, does not have a convenient International Fleet, let alone Watcher's Council, to funnel a 'grown up' one of you into.]

[There is that. Did he express any opinion one way or another about meeting me?]

[He wanted to stop hearing you described until he met you. No word on whether he wanted that to be sooner than the next Bellparty, and the next Bellparty is waiting for everybody who was stranded to catch up back home.]

[I think I can manage to keep my curiosity under control until then.]

[It might be a while. Sarion was split up from her sweethearts for sixteen years, since they were in Origin doing Cronian ecoforming when Jane crashed. That's getting fixed, by the by, she's getting her own body that isn't in Aegis and it will live nice and safe in the Belltower. And I don't know how long Syntropy and Alethia and Peace were out.]

[I see.]

[So yeah. New you. Pattern's boyfriend Ripper. Thought you ought to know.]

[Yes, thank you, much obliged.]

[Found alts of you guys. Two sets, actually, although I only spoke to one, the others were dead and are waiting for their local Bell to have someplace to put them. The ones I met are a duke and duchess's kids in a fairytale kinda world called Chronicle. Also they are fire-witches, and the Val fell into a magic spring and can do something strikingly similar to iethat. They are friends with that local Bell's three daughters.]

[That is... bizarre,] says Ike, [I'll go with bizarre. What's a fire-witch?]

[A kind of Chronicle magic user. Involves fire - the three daughters have a little bit of fire witch in them and apparently like to play with hot glass and metal - full fire witches also invariably have red hair and they can also know things about stuff by touching it.]

[In-ter-es-ting.]

[So you guys should definitely turn up at the next Bell party, but it might be a while.]

[We should! Why will it be a while?]

[While Jane was down some people were stranded, some of them for a very long time, and they're catching up at home.]

[Well. That makes sense. Okay,] says Ike.

[Yep. You want to tell Val yourself or should I ping her again later?]

[I can tell her.]

[Okay, cool. I'll let you know when a Bellparty is scheduled.]

[Thank you!]

[You're welcome!]