"Well, Gloria thinks it's the bee's knees."

Giggle. "I haven't met her yet."

"She's very...herself."

"Unfortunately, that doesn't give me much information in advance."

"She's blonde and pretty and runs around in red dresses that are, mm, not really the kind of thing most people wear, and is the only reason I know 'pre-Raphaelite' is a style of painting, and she's...the best word I can think for it is vivacious."

"Sounds interesting."

"I think maybe the best way of describing her is...she sees the world differently than a lot of people, and she has the force of personality to get away with it?"

"When should I expect to encounter her?"

"At some point over the next few days, probably."

"Okay."

Bedtime story of the paladin nine times alive?

Sure.

It's a novel but it's written in a sort of biography style, complete with the explanation of the paladin's family and early life mentioning her future deeds where they may be connected; the biographer-narrator's almost more of a character than the paladin. Bella explains whenever something comes up that they don't have here - demons, paladins themselves, the church of Kharol, etcetera.

Idaia listens closely and asks questions where appropriate!

And they get through three chapters and Bella yawns and it is bedtime.

Good night.

Night!

If she wakes up before Idaia in the morning the room may still smell of blood.

Ew. Is there any visible blood? This is a little much for "somebody's on her period"...

No visible blood, no, but Idaia's curled up on her side looking miserable. And asleep.

Bella doesn't actually know if it's safe to wake her while she's mid-magic-dream, should have asked. She ties a shirt around her face and picks up her crystal ball and does research.

And she wakes up. "Morning," she mumbles.

"Hi. Is it safe to wake you up when you're having ambient effects?"

"Yeah."

"Do you want me to?"

"If I'm having a nightmare, yeah. Sorry, I should have talked to you about this."