"What," says Elasirae in tones of fascination, "is metacausality?"

"We don't really know, but I can see it," says Glass, continuing to peer at the dragons. "I can tell by looking what template someone is, some things about what that means for their personal characteristics, and how templatey they are - Bells and Jokers are the templatiest, but Sherlocks aren't far behind - and things about how their template attractors have interacted with their worlds, and about the worlds themselves, and about how templates are sometimes inclined to appear together."

"That's bizarre," says Elasirae, with a thoughtful glance at Lazarus when he realizes he echoed the phrase. "How did it come about that you can tell all those things?"

"It's my enchantress aura. If you do a lot of enchanting you get one, with unique features - that's one of mine. I can also see magic, though I'm not as good at interpreting it as Lazarus is."

"I want to see magic too," Elasirae declares.

"Well, you could maybe approximate it with a wish, and maybe you'd get lucky if you tried enchanting, but native powers like Lazarus's are generally better than acquired powers."

Glass's witchy robes flutter. "Sorry," she says. "Fortunately, though, the fact that we're all connected up again means that the local coin supply isn't nearly as bottlenecked as it was a couple weeks ago."

"I see no reason not to offer you as good a copy of your alt's power as a hexagon can supply, if you would like."

"I would very like," says Elasirae.

Hex.

Glass pulls her marble out from under her shirt.

Elasirae snakes his neck down to get a closer look.

Glass laughs.

"At any time," Sarion remarks, mostly to Sherial, "Elspeth could collect Arianna and Sidanar in the same way."

"I'm not sure how they'd react," says Sherial. "Although I suppose most people aren't going to be suspicious of Elspeth the first time they see her..."

"Most people are not!"

"Are most of me?" she wonders. "I'd think they would be. But maybe they mostly meet you already vouched for by someone they trust."

"You're the first of your template to have met me for the first time out of a corroborating context, yes."

"If it happens again," says Sherial, "expect them to have doubts."

"All right. I can still go get Sidanar and Arianna, if it's time to go talk to them. And warn the latter that she may have a Bondable elf wandering around."

Sherial shrugs, resettling her glittery grey wings. "I won't stop you."

[What,] says Arianna.