"Has it occurred to you that you're sixteen years old and heavily traumatized and it's not reasonable to expect yourself to be some kind of flawless secret agent? Just a thought."

"I should put that on business cards. Solvei Koskin: Surprisingly Helpful. No but seriously, I know that, circumstances being what they are, it would probably help if you were some kind of flawless secret agent, but what you are is a traumatized teenage girl so that's what we need to work with. And I'm sure you'll develop hobbies besides misery and murder once you've had more than a few hours of being yourself to develop them in. Come on, if I was out there knowing the things you know, I'd be miserable all the time too. As an aside, if we ever learn to drive, you should think about getting a bumper sticker that says 'my other personality is bipolar'."

Out-loud helpless giggling continues.

Bella peers out of the kitchen, but doesn't ask.

"I love you too, Sis. And technically, the answer is 'because you made me this way'. But I know what you're going to say to that."

"Yeah. And yeah, there's no way to know for sure whether I made you or learned you or stole your soul from Heaven unless we find the first Solvei and ask. Which we might actually be able to do, but we'd better not count on it."

"So. Feeling better?"

"Yes. Thank you."

"Anytime. Go tell Bella what you want to ask the fluffball, in case she sees him first."

Bella is massaging spicy liquid into a flanksteak. "Hey."

"Hi. Solvei is so helpful. And hilarious, that too. Did you see the fluffball at all today?"

"No, but I wasn't shouting for it in my head."

"Me neither. I thought of some things I wanted to ask it, though. How magic works, whether it's possible to steal all of somebody's magic power and use it for yourself, whether I can get Ghyslaine dead and Solvei resurrected in the same wish. How about you? What's your question list looking like?"

"Let me look at my notes." Bella fridges the steak and washes her hands and goes and gets her notebook; she writes down these questions. "To what extent does wording matter," she reads, "I want to see if I can get it to divulge some wishes it's granted in the past or if that counts as suggestions, could I accomplish the effect of eradicating say cancer if I did more of my own detail work somehow, is 'luck' a coherent thing and if so how much of it can I throw around, how common and how nasty-at-the-ceiling is mind magic, to what extent can furball deploy these magical gifts on a smaller scale without a girl powering them, how old is too old and how soon, if at all, will it get sick of waiting for me to think of something and run off to a more reckless prospect, can I set up an emergency wish that will go through at the last minute if I'm hit by a car again or something and nobody's coming to save me, which laws of physics are optional, is this all ultimately actually magic or is it just sufficiently advanced technology, and also may I pet its fluffy tail."

...She giggles at the last one.

"It's really fluffy. And it sat in your lap."

"Now I also want to know if I can pet its fluffy tail."

Bella makes a note of this.

"And about how magic works," she adds, thinking aloud, "I know the gem thing is a weakness but I don't know how much of one, if I could wish for a superpower that would let me get it away from her and smash it or something then I'd still be going around with 'teleport small objects' or whatever afterward and that'd be plenty useful, but that only works if teleporting and smashing her small object is a really reliable way to take all her magic away and/or kill her."

Bella writes that down. "Good question. A bonus permanent superpower is definitely the sort of thing I might downgrade to if I give up on massive positive effects on the world as a whole for magic-oomph-reasons. I wonder how many people just wish for something within their capacities first thing without thinking about it?"

"Plenty, I'm sure."

"I have the vague impression that it usually goes for girls younger than we are, which can only increase that."