"Not clearly enough to tell," she says after a moment. "There are a lot of angels I don't recognize at this party. Should we go looking for them?"

"Yeah. I'll go see if I can turn them up," says Kerron, and he heads out into the crowd.

If he's looking for an eleven-year-old angel, he might find one tucked into a roomlet on the main floor level. But she is quiet enough and still enough to be easy to miss, even with those bright white wings.

He's got pretty keen vision. "Hey there! Are you Ariel?" he inquires.

"Yes," says Ariel. "Who are you?"

"I'm Kerron! I'm your cousinoid - one of the Joker's kids."

"I haven't met any cousinoids yet," says Ariel. She smiles.

"Well, you've got a bunch. Alts of your sisters and me and my sister and since you're also a Bell kid the Chronicle little princesses count for you even though they don't for me."

"That's a lot," says Ariel. "I think I'm okay with seeing you one at a time. What's it like in your world?"

"I'm from Aurum. We're the world with the vampires and the werewolves and the witches."

"Does everybody know about magic there?"

"Most people. Not literally everyone, but it gets closer every day."

"That must be nice," she says. "Magic is a secret in Samaria."

"Yeah, I've heard. You'll get there. It used to be secret in Aurum too."

"We will," she agrees, nodding. "But not for a long time."

"How old are you, anyway?"

"I am eleven," says Ariel.

"I think that makes you older than your alt, have you met her yet?"

She shakes her head. "I haven't. Have you?"

"Nope, I was looking for the one or the other of you and found you first."

"I'm not very findable in here," she says. "Did you have to look hard?"

"I looked for a while, but you were still more findable than Hyacinthe."

"I bet she is somewhere you wouldn't expect anyone to be," says Ariel.