"Can I turn female?"

"I'll do it for you, and back too whenever you want, if you like, though I'm not yet willing to hand you the wishcoin that would let you do it yourself."

"Then nah," he says. "Maybe later."

"All right. Do you know yet what you want to do?"

"No," he admits.

"Is there anything else you'd like to know in the meantime?"

"There isn't one. Which I suppose means the catch is that you're going to spend a while looking over your shoulder for something that isn't going to happen."

Felicity snorts. "Sure."

"I usually don't have nearly this much trouble being convincing," remarks Elspeth.

"Good for you."

Elspeth laughs softly, then falls silent, and starts checking with her grandfather by brainphone about the availability of Isle Esme.

"Whatcha doing?"

"Talking to my Grandpa Carlisle about the family island. It's out of the way of anybody liable to take offense to obnoxiousness, plenty of things to climb on and swim in and accidentally lacerate yourself on if you're in the mood, and not too far from Rio de Janeiro if it is ever called for to take you out in public and we'd prefer to boat rather than teleport. He says I can move there with you for the next few years. Presuming you're amenable."

"Well... maybe."

"There's no rush. Although there is a bit of work I should handle in person in about an hour."

"Yeah, what?"

"I run public relations for my mother's empire. I'm going to attend a meeting to talk about the upcoming merger of this world's Internet with a couple other worlds' via ansible."

"It's the year 2060," reiterates Elspeth, "here, and the other two worlds involved in the pilot project are currently experiencing 2025 and 2320. The Internet is a bigger deal than you're used to."

"...Okay," says Felicity.

"I am kind of the internet!" asserts Jane.

"You are kind of weird," says Felicity.

"Yep."

"I'll get you a computer," laughs Elspeth.