Hugs.

Hugs! Lúthien has a lot of hair and it's hard to avoid even incidental contact with it, but Bella manages.

Now that it's safe to reset I guess we could see if singing at witches does anything.

Also I can do the song a lot stronger, if it might be needed.

Witches might need it, but, uh, I should not fall over into a giggling stupor while in a witch.

Yup. So I don't know the safest way to test it.

You record a stronger version and I fling the recording into a witch and bail?

Okay!

Do you think you'll be audible through the walls, should we go drive somewhere more isolated for you to re-record?

Probably.

Okay then.

Into the car they go, and Bella drives until they're nowhere in particular and sets up the video camera and leaves Lúthien alone with it.

And she sings the strongest, most powerful happiness song she can manage. She will be giddy for a week.

Bella comes back to collect the recording and Lúthien both. You okay to park in the hotel while I go find a witch?

Yes!!!

...Are there any accumulated effects from repeated long term exposure to this magic song I should be worrying about? Bella wonders, escorting her back to the car.

I don't think so? I mean, I have been doing it for five hundred years, and it's possible I have a higher baseline happiness than I otherwise would, but it'd take centuries to get that effect and I still would expect it to fade with time.

Okay, I won't worry about it too much then.

Good. Do be careful not to listen to the full-effort version, though, it might affect humans more or something.

Yeah, I'll just throw it at witches.

I hope it works.

Yeah. Though I'm not sure what 'working' looks like. Might destroy them or turn them back - if it's a witch that's budded a lot that could wind up with several of the same person - might do all kinds of stuff -

How powerful should the witch that's going to destroy the world in a month be right now?

I'm not sure. It's either really inconspicuous about being nearly as big as it is then all month, and only sort of bursts forth when it gets some last little boost, or it grows very big very fast and suddenly in a way I haven't tracked down yet.

How do witches generally get stronger?

They kill people. Not directly - usually - they just lurk around and people kill themselves, or each other, and it strengthens the witch.

So if this witch managed to kill a lot of people, she could get stronger really fast?