My dad is really overprotective and really paranoid. 

That sucks.

I mean. It's not like it's not sort of justified, imagine if the Enemy got me. People are dying, I feel silly being mad about being stuck in the palace.

I don't actually know anything about the Enemy, Bella reminds her.

Right. He captures Elven cities and slowly tortures everyone to death for fun, and forces them to bear him children he can use as his slaves, and he also has mind-control powers the extent of which we don't really understand. So it'd be bad. If he caught me. 

...yes it would. I can't actually decide if this makes it a better or worse idea for you to make a wish if it turns out you can.

If it's the only way to get your kind of powers in my world, I think I had better do it. I won't take chances on getting captured, I like my world and don't want to be tortured into going mad and destroying it. 

The problem is puella magi come with their own 'go mad, destroy' failure mode. If something happens like 'you can't sing your own soul gem clear' or whatever, there's no other puella magi in your world to stop you. It's possible to kill witches without using puella magi magic but you have to find them and most people can't see them.

Right.

So then maybe the way to go is to have someone else wish you back with me to save my world once we've saved yours.

Yeah. Although saving mine is a multi-step process. There's the world-eating witch and then there's the evil aliens. I do not know how hard to expect the evil aliens to be to get rid of, unless it turns out they'll go away if I just give them a copy of your song recorded or something anticlimactic like that.

Can I read their minds? Would it help?

...yeah, go ahead and read their minds if you can perceive them at all, that might help a lot depending. They're a sort of hive mind, if I kill one another will replace it, they don't even care, so you might get more of a brainful than you're expecting, be advised.

Okay. Worst thing happens is it's too much and I have to stop listening, assuming they don't have osanwe natively.

Nah, their telepathy is different. And I am nearly positive they can't read anything that isn't sent to them.

Then I can see if I can get anything by reading them.

Sure. I can find one in Seattle.

How long will it take us to get to Seattle?

Few hours. My hometown isn't really near anything, Seattle's across the whole state.

I'm happy to sing some more.

And she does.

Pretty!

Soon enough Bella pulls into a rest stop. It has a Cinnabon and a newsstand sort of shop with snackfood and candy and a Burger King and a KFC and a frozen yogurt place.

She has literally never seen so many kinds of food in her life, and says so.

...remind me to take you to an actual grocery store sometime. Anything in particular catching your eye?

How could it? There are so many! I'll get the things you recommended.

Okay then.

So Bella gets them both chicken and biscuits and Cinnabons.

This food is so weird!!! In a nice way, though. Just. Weird. Doesn't even look like food.