"Me!" Harià's small enough to be picked up, and even if she's the senior wizarding badger, she's a long way away from fly. 

"Oh, summoning is Tricky. I got a Snake earlier, with a Mirror, but it just left Without Telling me where it was From! Rude if you ask Me!"

Lila swoops down and snatches up Harià, with a two-handed grab around her waist.  She flies a circle around the room, and then twirls in midair back-down, with Harià sitting on her belly.

She's not paying any attention to how long the spell might be lasting...

"Huh!" she says over her shoulder to Eriape down below.  "I know magic's tricky, but this seems like you've got so many stories!  At least if they'll talk to you!  I've never heard of any mirror-snakes like that; I wonder where they're from and what that one's doing around here!

"Is that why you're summoning them?  To hear everyone's stories?"

"I'm Honing the spell, the Same Way a Smith might Hone a Knife! If as an Archer you start Loosing Arrows at a new Target, you will Miss a Lot!"

"Oooooh!  Like when you're just starting to sew, you'll make a lot of bad stitches, but then after a while you'll have learned to do it right?  That's the same thing Fraddir's doing with his magic... that's why it's taking him so long..."

She fingers her ring, carefully not activating it.

"... But you're actually summoning people.  What're you going to do with people who aren't so happy to stick around and talk with you like me?  What if -"

A sudden horrible thought strikes her.  She squeezes Harià's leg reflexively.

"-- you do know how to send me home?  Right?"

"It will Require some Experimentation, but it will Certainly be Possible! Sending someone Away is always Easier!"

That sounds sort of like what Papa would say when he didn't know how to get her something right then - and then half the time he'd forget about it.  Or at least it wouldn't happen.

She doesn't say anything, but she still stares at Eriape worriedly.

Eriape's looks away, not quite meeting her eyes.

So Eriape doesn't know how to send her home.

This's been fun, but...

Lila imagines Selma, poor Selma, and worried Fraddir; and everyone else in Maranon groaning under Barvid's usurpation...  She's supposed to help them.

Which means she needs to be there.

She flips over, feet-down, and descends, holding the badger in her arms as she's hovering several inches above the floor.

"It's not right for you to go grabbing people if you can't get them back," Lila says.  "This's fun - I'm so glad I saw you, and you too badgers - it's great to visit, but I need to get home!  Maybe not right now.  But I can't just stay here.  I'm - I'm - I've got big things to do back home.  Against Barvid."

She's not going to just say she's a princess... at least not right now.

Though if she does say it... Maybe she's in another story now, or her story's taken a twist, with Princess Eriape as a strange new ally?

"You should've guessed that some people you summon were in the middle of something important!  I wasn't quite - I'm happy to stay for today -"

... well, maybe not now that she's thinking about it.  Selma will be wondering soon how long Lila's taking getting the water.

"- but Selma and Fraddir are going to be worried about me!  They'll be thinking Barvid got me!"

"Hey! You don't talk to the Boss like that!"

"Yeah!"

"Yeah! Who do you think you are!?"

"Yeah! You better watch your mouth!"

"Yeah! What were you doing that was so damn important!?"

"Yeah! I don't see you helping the undying badger community?"

"Yeah!"

Lila jumps up and back from the increasingly angry-looking badgers.

"Hey, nobody does everything right in the story!  I'm the Princess of Maranon, and I don't know how to save my kingdom by myself!"

She suddenly realizes what she said, and pointedly clicks her mouth shut as if she meant to say that.

"Now now, Girls, Calm Down."

"If it is That Important, I have a Very Special spell, that Always, Without Fail sends you Back to what you Came From."

(Editors note: Dismissal has a 20% failure chance)

"You do?"

She feels like all the wind's suddenly gone out of the sails of her lecture, and she's just hanging in midair.

(...which she literally is...)

"Can you - well, I don't think really want to go back right now if I can later - but Fraddir and Selma will be worried - can you maybe send them a note now to let them know I'm okay?"

"I am Very Powerful, and can Do many Things!"

"The Necessary Spell to Reach your Friends is a Sending, which Requires the Caster to have Met the Target! But I have a Brilliant Idea! I can Summon this Fraddir- that will be Just as Good!"

"Yes!"

But... wait.  As soon as Fraddir's here, he'll have ten thousand questions for Princess Eriape about her magic and about becoming undying and everything else.  And then he'll change up all his Plan, and he'll make another ring or something, and Eriape and the badgers will be helping him, and... He'll be doing it all for Lila and for her story, but...

... she wants to do something herself.

"... Or can we wait a bit?  He might still be at his magic...  Can we talk about your magic or something?  What can you do for hiding?  Or fighting?  Can I learn it?"

"I can Teleport, and Turn Men to Stone, and Create Clever Undying Badgers, and Steal your Breath so you Suffocate, and See People Far Away,....

(Editors's note: Full Spell List Elided)

"...and soon Enough I will be Able to Summon the Eternal Badger!"

Eriape glances at her. 

"You are Sure to be Able to Learn Magic! If you can Read! If you Cannot Read, it is Impossible."