"You're welcome," says Miles. "I understand if this isn't the best time, but now that I have access to an adult member of this mysterious interdimensional society of powerful people, I have... a lot of questions."

"Sure," says Shell Bell, stepping back into Milliways. "Hit me."

"How does this business with multiple versions of the same people work, exactly...?"

"We're not actually sure! I mean, we know what happens, but not why. But we - I'm a Bell, so's Pen's mother - cooperate with ourselves really well, so we formed a network to share stuff. We have the same personality and some strange coincidences in circumstance and we look the same. Except for Cam, who is a boy."

"I wonder if I have any of these duplicates," he muses. "How would I go about getting in touch with them?"

"You don't look familiar, but I can call Glass in to check to see if you're a new face of somebody we've met. If you're not, you can leave notes with Bar, or just loiter indefinitely in Milliways, but there's no guarantee this'll get you in touch in a reasonable time frame."

"Hm," he says. "If it's not too much trouble, I would like to know."

"Sure."

Another one in a different outfit complete with witch hat appears and inspects Miles. "New," she says. "Templatey, though. That's at least three people's worth of templatey, probably more. Jane, sweep please?"

[One in Chronicle,] reports Jane.

"'Sweep'...?"

"Jane just went through all the worlds she's got nodes in and tried sending a blank brainphone message to the local instance of you, in case there was one, and she found one in my world. Who I haven't met yet."

"Interesting," he says. "I would definitely appreciate an introduction, but if he's really one of me, he may be... unusually likely to be in the middle of something that shouldn't be interrupted."

"Should not be teleported into, should not be brainphoned during, or should not be looked at?"

"Should not be teleported into, should not be brainphoned during..." He considers. "I don't think I'd mind if another version of me had a look at me to see if I was busy. I don't yet have enough data to know how well that generalizes."

"Probably pretty well. Here, have thirty seconds of superpower, don't use it within Milliways or you'll get a headache." And she gets up and holds the door for him.

"Why thank you," he says, and he leans through the door and looks for himself.

About seventeen. In a forest. Falling off a startled horse.

Miles sucks in a breath and winces sharply. "Oh, ouch. He doesn't seem to be doing anything critical, but I'd give him a minute anyway, he just broke his arm. And maybe some ribs."

"I could, you know, fix that," says Glass.

"For which I'm sure he'll be very grateful. In a minute. I speak from long experience. The first thirty seconds after a broken bone are not a time to try to talk to me even if you lead with very good painkillers."

Shrug. "Okay. Any other tips on introducing myself? He's probably heard of me, I'm a princess."

"I don't know enough about your world to have specific suggestions. But he should be getting more amenable to conversation right about now."