"There are some non-god adventuring types who can contest them and people who want the planet in one piece outnumber people who don't. And there are other planes that gods spend most of their time on."

"The Enemy captured and tortured everyone he could, by the end it was hundreds of thousands of people, not that even he had the attention to get creative with them all, but -"

"Some of the planes where gods spend their time are the same planes where mortals go when we die."

"...so I am assuming even a twelve-year-old my father is together enough to have concluded we have to destroy this place somehow..."

"I'd rather just evacuate it."

"That works too."


And then they will bombard Bella with questions about Materia and subtle artistry.

Some of which she can answer! Up until she has to sleep! Humans pretty much need to sleep every day even if they are not wizards, have they not noticed.

They sort of just wrote it off as maybe humans liked sleeping more, Idaia and Imliss do because of the dream magic.

And mana recharging is important and Bella can lucid dream, which is in fact lots of fun, but also if she tries to pull an all-nighter she will be much less alert the next day even with a coffee-thing. Sleep now. She will see them in the morning. Zzzz.

In the morning they have more questions.

When the weekend comes Nelyo arrives.

"Idaia! Imliss! I'm so sorry I couldn't get off work sooner - I'm so glad you're alive -" Hugs? Hugs. "Rúmil! This is - surreal, it's been so long and also I kept being convinced you'd scowl at me for - everything - despite the fact that in your world everything hasn't happened, yet - Bella, it is very lovely to meet you, I'm Matthew these days but my siblings never broke the habit of calling me Nelyo."

"It's nice to meet you too - what name do you prefer?"

"Oh, I don't do those.

Preferences," he adds when she looks confused.

...she continues to look confused.

"Things that people do don't affect my emotional state by anywhere near enough for me to form an ordering over things they do within the range of normal human or Elven behavior. I can pretend to have such an ordering if you'd like."

"...that's not necessary."

"It's lovely to meet you."

Yes you said that. "Thank you."

"....so can you fix him?"

"...even if I were currently forming optimistic plans for that it'd fall under confidentiality and I'm not because he hasn't asked me to."

"Bella's a therapist! She can fix anything, you should let her fix you."

He glances at Macalaurë. Macalaurë meets his eyes. "I'd be delighted to work with Bella," he says, "if she wants to and if we agree about what fixing means."

"I cannot fix everything I am not omnipotent I had to refer a patient to a colleague as recently as two months ago," says Bella, "but if you would like to try it out I can see what I can do."

"What sorts of things do you end up having to refer patients to colleagues over?"

"Reasons might theoretically include applications of artistry I lack the raw ability for, patients with demonic ancestry whose minds are unsafe to contact without special equipment I'm not trained to use, delicate comorbidity or unusual presentation, lack of personal rapport, patients preferring artists who subscribe to their religious beliefs, and mind contents which are necessarily involved in the work and impair my ability to perform."