And Bella leaves her be and goes to email Raine.

...And that evening Bella says, It occurs to me that if the fluffs figure out who and where I am and they show up when I'm asleep I'm in trouble.

Oh.

Want me to stay closer to the house and not sleep and wake you up if fluffs get within osanwe range?

That's what I was thinking if it won't be inconvenient. You can come in if you want, Charlie doesn't mind.

Your dad's pretty great.

She stays outside - trees! - but alert for fluffs.

Yeah, he is.

And they wait.

Lúthien is worried for Raine. Even though they can just reset.

Bella keeps her up to date. Fluffs are (successfully, as far as Lúthien can tell) deterred from stalking Bella. Negotiation is slow. The fluffs get their own email address.

Well. That's progress. She thinks. She's not sure what an email address is.

Email is a way of sending letters without physical paper.

So now you can send the fluffs letters?

Yeah, instead of going through Raine.

Are you sure the fluffs won't just betray the deal?

Nope. I'm gonna want them to agree to show me stuff and bring you along so you can read them, ideally from wherever they coordinate their hive mind.

Okay. I can do that.

You're really helpful, I'm so glad you showed up.

Thanks. That means a lot.

You're welcome.

She smiles to herself. She sings to herself. She does not sleep. No fluffs come.

Bella sleeps, and lets Lúthien know when she's awake, and offers her bacon and eggs if she wants.

Sure!

And then maybe Bella can read her a story?

Awww. Sure, Bella will read her a story.

Her spoken English is pretty good but reading is hard.

Well, she hasn't been at it very long. And English is kind of stupid. They can intersperse with Thindarin lessons.

Yep! Lúthien'll mostly sing.

That works! As long as it has a variety of vocabulary words.