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Bella's house gets done, and she fills it up with things. She experiments with magic, and theorizes when she has more data to work with; when she runs out of her steadily increasing mana supply for a day she studies Quenya. One morning she sits bolt upright in bed, realizes she has not seen a single wheel since she got here, and runs off to Mahtan to explain the concept, which is, it turns out, new.
When Fëanáro is feeling sociable she hangs out with him. He finishes his novel. (In it, the school turns him over to social workers and adopt him out, he escapes his foster family, he encounters a dragon and talks his way past it with stories about Arda, he studies wizardry and is unreasonably effective at it, when the dragon opens a portal to Arda he sneaks through too and the Valar slay the dragon, he fixes his mother with magic, and then he masters planar travel himself and conquers Bella's plane.) He finishes his typewriter, too; Bella's of the opinion that it would have been easier if he made vowels separate instead of consonant-hats, but it works okay like so. She acquires one when there is more than one, and learns to type, because crystal balls are a long time coming.
She has made some progress, though. She finds the common thread in dud combinations that produced an aura, and successfully decomposes all her original spells into pieces and begins to make new combinations. Most of these are trivial like the increased character limit arcane mark. Reverse-engineering her undead-damaging spell, though, gets her (small) arcane healing well in advance of when she was expecting to have that down. So anybody who lives on her block and cuts themselves cooking breakfast can knock on her door - or that of anybody who's getting the spells as she turns them out - and get that seen to without bothering a Maia.
Once a month she sees Miriel. Bella doesn't have any ideas that land any better than "forget you forgot something". But forgetting the contents of that foolish, foolish oath is at least a holding pattern that lets Miriel pretty much live her life, so, therapeutic success? ...Bella makes sure to remind Fëanáro that he is very adorable and lovable and adored and loved.
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subtly_artistic
They're apparently debating it. They do not move at Bella-pace and have not yet decided. It'd be nice if it weren't a one-way trip.
subtly_artistic
Well, she can do send-person-to-place too but that probably has teleportation-like complications. She goes and asks Olórin about this.
The Valar are very worried that, given the opportunity, lots of people would hop to the Outer Lands, do dangerous things, possibly commit crimes against their fellow Elves or eventually against the other races that will arrive in the Outer Lands for which they can escape accountability by hopping back to Valinor, and otherwise use their place of refuge as one of leverage. Does Bella have any ideas about how to avoid that?
subtly_artistic
...She hasn't met anybody who seems like the type but she hasn't met everyone... Uh, maybe if you are in Valinor as of right now you could need a permit to go to the Outer Lands or something? She could build a time limit into the spell, if they think dangerous and/or criminal things might take a while?
That seems like a good solution. Everyone who is in Valinor and would like to go to the outer lands can talk with Manwë and make sure they aren't being disruptive or exploiting anyone, and a time limit could be added later if needed.
subtly_artistic
Okay, so, there needs to be some thing Manwë can do to a person that the spell can recognize which is sufficiently unfakeable for their purposes...
Would she like to collaborate with Manwë on that?
He'll talk to Manwë himself about it, how's that?
He takes several weeks to get back to her. "Manwë says he can just keep an eye out for the spell and only let it work if the caster has talked with him."
subtly_artistic
"Okay, that's easier. Uh, people who come from the Outer Lands just to visit can go home, right?"
"Of course! It is not visits to Valinor we want to discourage, but citizens of Valinor misusing the advantages the Blessed Realm gives them in a way we have no means to handle on a case-by-case basis."
subtly_artistic
"Okay, just checking. Full speed ahead on visiting spells then."
"Best of luck, Bella."
subtly_artistic
"Thanks."
And she goes full speed ahead on visiting spells! They are... complicated.
And she goes full speed ahead on visiting spells! They are... complicated.
She has plenty of people to show her notes and thoughts to, by now, if she's interested. The Eldar finally have some people who could really be called wizards and seem to collectively have an aptitude for spell development, though she's faster.
subtly_artistic
Sure! Maybe she should have an actual workplace of some kind? People could come there and help out with stuff.
All she has to do is mention this offhand, and one is constructed. It's called the Bella School of Magic and it's downtown in a beautiful building.
subtly_artistic
...Okay. She sets up an office and gives lectures and invents stuff. She writes a textbook.
Fëanáro has the printing press now. He can make copies of her textbook while she's getting scribers sorted.
Bella's school of magic is generally full of people.
subtly_artistic
It's so bustley and productive and great. Would Fëanáro like to try teaching to practice for his ten children and generally see if he's making progress on being patient? He knows a fair amount about magic.
Fëanáro turns out to be a surprisingly good teacher, if a bit commandeering.