"Just some personal notes." She shuts the notebook and puts her pen away. "Hello."

"No weird stories? People with stories stuck in their heads are the best. Oh, I'm Suzy, shouldve said that first, probably."

"I'm Isabella. I've been known to come up with stories, but I wasn't writing one just then."

"Well, if you do it again, tell me some. Most people are boring, there's not enough stories to go around so they all share the same ones."

Arthur wasn't that far behind Suzy, as it turns out. "Hey, Suze, trying to recruit minions already?"

"Maybe! She was writing something in a fancy book, that makes her interesting."

"Minions?" wonders Isabella archly.

"Suzy gets 'cunning plans'. And then wants people to help her go through with them. For some reason, she thinks other people will be convinced more easily than me."

"Just because you think they're silly..."

"Oh no, you were right, selling honey from secret beehives on the roof totally would have worked if we stuck with it. Absolutely."

"The roof wouldn't be a particularly good place to put beehives, in terms of logistics or in terms of things for the bees to eat. And you need a fair number of of beehives to get enough surplus honey to sell more than a handful of jars. You can do a little beekeeping in your backyard, if you only want a small quantity, but the equipment's expensive for a high-school budget and you wouldn't get very much return on the investment," says Isabella. "There are easier ways to make money."

"Oh no, our dreams of anarchy honey are ruined. Such a shame, such a shame."

"I've met people who keep them."

"Are they around here? I want to see it done in person sometime, at least."

"Damn. Well, I'll get to it eventually."

"Suzy ask you the boring questions yet? Classes, whatever?"

"It didn't come up. I'm loaded up on AP courses, and regular Spanish and choir. I'm hoping to get into college no later than two years from now - maybe one, or as a January admit next school year, if I can pull that off."

"Wow, you're blowing through school, aren't you? And you're pretty small for a freshman. There a story there?"

"I'm twelve. As of last week. I skipped a couple of grades."

"Well, guess I know the smartest person in the room whenever you're around. Big plans ahead of you?"

"I'm thinking maybe medical school."

"Seems good. My folks are doctors, actually."

"What kind?"

"Mom's a surgeon, Dad does research. I think it was on some antibiotics alternative, last I asked? I can't keep the details straight."

"I haven't picked a specialty yet but I'm thinking research, not clinical practice. Maybe public health. That's if I do wind up in med school instead of something else."

"He used to work with the CDC on something. It was years ago, though. We moved here from Atlanta when I was eight, I think?"

"OK, this is boring, I am changing the topic now. What do you do for fun? You said you wrote things?"

"I - sort of, yes. And I do archery and calligraphy and some crafty stuff and I read."

"Did you make that notebook?"

"No. It was a Christmas present."

"Someone gives good presents, then, it's a nice notebook."

"You need a test reader for your sort-of writing? I'd be happy to help."

"I haven't really planned on publishing. I don't think I'm much of a storyteller. It's almost more like annotated daydreaming than anything else, and I only have one story."

"Well, one's fine if it's a good one. What's it about?"

Arthur notices the drift, and the hand. "Funny daydream that comes with a Christ allegory. Your family very religious?"

"My parents," she says, accent snapping back to standard American, "are the sort of loosely Christian who don't actually do anything about it, and my mother likes to flirt with New Age and Eastern spirituality on an unpredictable schedule. I'm Christian but not any specific kind - I haven't found a church I fit."

"You're missing the important part of that story, Art. Which is the tasty accent. Where's it from?"

"Affectation left over from too many SCA meetings when I was ten and eleven."

"I like it, makes you sound fancy," she puts on a mock-serious expression for a moment, "You should tell all stories in that accent. No one would dare doubt you, you'd be much too dignified."

"I'll keep that in mind."

There's a bit of a lull, and Suzy nibbles at her lunch.

Isabella has a lunch too, brought from home. Nibble. "What was your name?" she asks Arthur.

"I didn't say, did I? I'm Arthur, nice to meet you. Five minutes ago. Or something. And I think I missed your name, too."

"Isabella. Swan."

"Rhydderch, for me. Don't bother pronouncing it, even I've barely got enough Welsh blood to recite the incantation, it never works for anyone else. Even if they've tried for years like Miss Piper here."

"Duly noted. I won't risk butchering it."

Lunch continues to ensue.

Suzy hisses, "Art, look at this! It's like a hand-made textbook!"

"That's gorgeous! And who is that?"

"She looks like Isabella. Maybe she has a cousin? Who does really, really thorough fantasy SCA, and made a fancy printed book with pictures and notebook pages for Isabella. Which has notes written in it before some of the pictures."

"We should ask Isabella about her 'daydream'."

Isabella comes back from the bathroom. She lets her notebook drop carelessly open; it displays English notes and she adds to them diligently.

At a spare moment a few minutes later, Arthur turns to Isabella and says "I'd like to hear more about your daydream story sometime. With the unicorns and fauns and all."

"No, but they're in the book. The paper was odd and we didn't expect... any of that."

"It was your English notebook, it didn't seem secret! And I put it down as soon as I figured out the pages didn't stick to one thing."

"I opened it. Sorry. We just saw some stuff about making books, and a couple pages of pictures."

"I use it for things besides English. Never open it again," hisses Isabella, and then she returns her attention to the lecture.

"I wasn't going to, jeez!"

"I'd probably start with the 'magic book' part, but whatever part of the story you want to tell first, I'm about equally scared, confused, and curious."

"Are you going to tell anyone about my book?"

"You wouldn't have to steal it, or outright convince anyone. You'd just have to get someone interested enough to pick it up and look through it." Pause. "Queen."

"I'll keep your secret. But I really want to hear the story, now."

"Same. I won't tell."

"And skipped ahead in school, to prove she was an adult as fast as she could..."

"More or less. After I got used to Earth, again."

"I hated being treated like a kid enough when I was one, let alone the queen of not-Earth. Did you actually do SCA?"

"Yeah. Talked my mom into it and went with her. I wanted a bow and arrows, and it's convenient to explain the accent lapses and the calligraphy and a few other things. I considered begging for riding lessons but there's no way I'm getting my own horse so it's not necessary to explain why I can handle one."

"I want to congratulate you on your excellent plan, but you're really twice our age, aren't you?"

"It must have been a jolt, coming back."

"I'm probably not twice your age. I'm subjectively twenty-seven." She swallows. "Jolt doesn't begin to describe it."

"Well, now you have two other people who believe you."

"If only I knew what to do with this resource."

"OK, so that might have helped more two years ago. And I guess the book was proof you weren't nuts. But still."

"If the book hadn't come with me I don't know what I'd have thought."

"I'd probably have called it a really vivid dream, eventually. And written it down. Maybe tried to find a way back, if it kept feeling so real."

"I'm fairly sure I have to have been shunted back for some reason. It may have been impossible to make the time continue to match up in such a way that my parents wouldn't miss me, that's my dominant hypothesis. I've tried the wardrobe again, it's just - it doesn't work anymore. I don't know what else to try."

"Something might be weird about the wardrobe that you could study. But when there's an obvious Jesus allegory walking around and actual physical Santa Claus delivering magical presents, I guess you can't expect normal rules to apply. Maybe it's astrology and there won't be another time it can work for decades."

"The obvious Jesus allegory is named Aslan, there," she murmurs. "He's a lion. And Father Christmas prefers to be called Father Christmas. Astrological reasons seem - unlikely, but I can't articulate why."

"Suggesting astrology was a joke. Well, mostly a joke. I don't know, I've never seen magic work."

"By and large it's magic stuff more than magic people. Even the witch mostly used her wand, and I'm not sure Father Christmas and Aslan did things so much as they were magic things. I didn't have any objects that required particular sidereal conditions."

"Had anyone else traveled between worlds, there? Or did it not seem important to ask?"

"The first King and Queen of Narnia back when it was made were humans, but their descendants thinned out the human-ness into the surrounding populations pretty thoroughly to the point you would never notice. And, well, Aslan, in his way. I don't know if Father Christmas used to have a presence here and was only shoved out by the general Earthly hostility to magic later, or what."

"That... sounds unhelpful. And sad. And it reminds me that I should probably start actually believing in Christ, now."

"If it makes it easier, I have fairly thoroughly looked through branches of Christianity practiced today and I don't think any of them are right. I'm also not in the least confident that the Bible as popularly translated contains exclusively non-apocryphal content, or includes all of same. I'm not so much a Christian exactly as I am someone who has met Aslan and thinks his local name was probably Jesus."

"I'll figure something out. It's uncomfortable to think about, not painful or anything. I haven't been living a terribly, sinful life which I now must give up and repent, it was just easier to have God be a background thing I didn't care about."

"I understand. The emphasis in Narnia was fairly heavily on Aslan over his father the Emperor-Beyond-The-Sea, but I'm not sure exactly why."

"Well, if Jesus walked around helping queens and fighting evil witches, and his dad was on the other side of the ocean where I'd never seen him, I bet we'd do that, too."

"Well, yes. I'm not sure why Aslan did the legwork while the Emperor was inaccessible, but it's possible the Emperor was busy elsewhere, just like Aslan slipped off to do other things shortly after I was crowned. There are two worlds, I see no reason there shouldn't be more."

"Oh, sure, makes sense. I'm just thinking I would find it way easier to believe in Jesus if he went around doing things where I could see him. Is there any picture of Aslan in your book?"

"No. He left before I got the magic equivalent of a camera. He looks like, well, a lion. A very big golden lion, but with, you know - personable sort of facial expressions."

"It's hard to imagine. Hard to believe, too. Not that I doubt you. Well, not exactly... My mom was religious, and it felt so fake I still have the bad taste in my mouth. Even when I think you're right."

"I wasn't in the least religious when I found the wardrobe. But, well, they celebrate Christmas, in particular, and - I was there when Aslan did Narnia's edition of the Passion."

"I'd probably be convinced if I was there, then, too. It sounds true. But it still feels wrong."

Isabella shrugs. "I'm not a missionary. Maybe I'm supposed to be, but I can't really tell people in general that I fell into a magical land through a wardrobe and met the lion version of Jesus."

"Mmm."

"There's a lot to think about. I'm kinda beat, honestly, think I'll head home. But.. thanks."

"Please don't tell anyone. I'm still legally twelve, and letting on generally about this would make my life very complicated."

"Secret's safe with me."

"Same."

Arthur and Suzy show up again at lunch. And the next few days, as well.

"Eh, something feels odd"

"Like something's pulling you that way?" She gestures vaguely to the right.

After a moment of disorientation, Arthur grins and says, "I don't think we're in Phoenix anymore."

"That was... very, very different from the wardrobe," murmurs Isabella. "And this time I didn't have a chance to pack - I've got my notebook and a water bottle and a sandwich and that's about it. Let's get out of this thicket."

"Right." She looks around, picks a direction that looks clear-ish, and strides forward.

"Sure, I guess." She's somewhat distracted looking at the ocean.

"Yeah, good plan... Anything special to look for by the shore? Every Boy Scout outing I did was in the mountains or desert."

"If you see a boat out on the water, or anything by the shore that looks like people made it, etcetera, let me know. Unless one of you has matches or something on you it's not worth the time it would take to build a fire, and therefore not worth hunting up and carrying around any seafood we run across, but if you see berries or something that look appetizing I might be able to identify them."

"The ocean is indeed this big on Earth."

"A little. Couldn't get to way out there."

"Some."

"Ok, let's go. Come on, Suze, the ocean will still be there later."

Arthur reaches for an apple from a lower branch, then stops. "Are apples too symbolic to be trustworthy?"

"I ate apples in Narnia. This is an orchard, not a tree marked do not eat, the Emperor says so." Isabella picks one and bites it. "They're ripe."

Suzy grabs her own. "Ooh, these are good."

"Something wrong?"

Would 'Oh man, cool!' be rude to say? Yes, yes it would. OK. "Lead the way?"

"The Scout's manual should have something like that. Do I have to know the title exactly?"

"Sure, let's look around," he says, then continues in a slightly mocking tone, "Should we let you lead, your majesty?"

"Sorry, I just find it all funny. Also cool, and a little sad, but funny."

"You have a weird sense of humor sometimes, Art. I'll come along, I think."

"I think I'll keep looking around up here."

Suzy checks the pockets of her jeans and finds a small Swiss army knife. "This might work, but getting a kitchen knife might be faster."

"What did the scepter do?"

"A few things. I could talk to any allied person over any distance. It lit up, which would be handy right about now, especially for finding anything else down there. And it cured my clumsiness."

"Should I go ahead of you? If you're worried about falling, I mean."

"Wow, you look... majestic."

"I'll look more majestic when I've found everything else. Although I'll probably have to stick with the jeans and the T-shirt. I doubt anything less sturdy than these boots -" She plucks a pair of boots from a shelf - "has survived. My wardrobe probably was eaten by moths or cannibalized for scraps or both. I should be able to find my belt, though - oh, the cordial, I'm glad to have that but I'm sad no one was using it, I wonder if the berries are growing wild somewhere by now or if the plant died? - it'll last a while on whatever's in it, though - there's my bow!" The bow is gorgeous; so is the quiver of arrows she slings over her shoulders. "Oh I missed it - ooh, my pen - ha! This will serve as a lighter - there's my camera-like thing -" Isabella collects and wears or pockets or bags various objects until she's even more majestic, passing over literal heaps of precious gems while she does it.

Suzy follows around, picking up various things. Mostly she's goggling at the wealth of it all, even after centuries of absence.

"It's amazing this wasn't looted. The jewels you keep staring at are more or less the Narnian-royalty equivalent of arts-and-crafts supplies - not that they weren't valuable, just that during my reign everyone was very keenly aware that you couldn't eat rocks. Take a pocketful of them if you like - could even be useful if we meet people who might want to trade with us. But the magic stuff - I don't see the cornucopia anywhere. That's good, more or less, I hope someone got good use of it, even if it means we're going to eat a lot of apples and whatever I can shoot. But everything else was just sitting here, what a waste, however convenient it is -" Isabella puts her hair in a quick braid and attaches it to her head with a jeweled comb. "Hmm, the horn's missing, too." She pulls out her notebook, clips the pen she was so pleased to find to its cover, and opens it. "But everything else is here. Except the bookshelf and my various infrastructural presents, of course, those are presumably where they were put to begin with."

"I might. I guess this is all normal to you, I must look silly."

"Not at all. I took some adjusting my first time through, too."

"I hope I do, soon. I feel like a farmer kid looking at her first skyscrapers."

Suzy grins and follows.

"Everything except the horn and the cornucopia! Oh, and I'm not sure what will have happened to my berry plant; it was in my window but that whole tower's collapsed. I'm going to look for it; if I can find it and it's growing, it's a good idea to replenish my healing cordial in case something happens."

"The cornucopia I can guess, but what did the horn do?"

"Summoned help. Sort of idiosyncratically. I got it pretty late in my reign and never used it myself, but occasionally someone else would have it and blow on it, and someone - not someone in particular, but someone who was in a position to help them - would hear and know where to go."

"If they found your things, but left everything here except food and 'help'... I don't think I like the sound of that."

"I don't think the cornucopia and the horn were in the storeroom or on my person at the time I disappeared, so it's not quite that concerning."

"That's good, then. Shall we go search under your old tower?"

"Where do we go from here, then? Gather a few bags of apples and head towards the mainland?"

"I think there were a couple leather packs in the storeroom. You should see it anyway, Art, even what was left behind was amazing."

"They'll be kind of worn out, but they're better than nothing, albeit I'm keeping my Earth backpack in the absence of my old bag. There does remain the question of how to get to the mainland when you two can't swim. I can walk there, I have shoes that will let me walk on air, but I can't take you with me. I could walk there and see if there are any boats, but if there's no boats and no creatures willing to give you a ride... I suppose I could attach the magic shoes to an arrow and shoot them back for your use? It's not that great a distance, I think I could make the shot with the good bow even with shoes throwing off the balance."

"I guess we do a circuit of the coastline? If someone lives on the island, they're probably near the water."

"We've already been most of the way around it, but we can go the rest of the way, if you two aren't tired, since my scepter does light."

"That would be fine with me. Or we could wait until morning. Or try a raft."

"We'd be easier to find at night, with the light bobbing around."

"Good point. Sound like a plan to you?"

"I guess we try the raft next, then? In the morning."

"What's that they have in their boat?"

Suzy's right behind her.

Arthur's not as fast off the mark, because he's watching where the soldiers flee.

"Happy to help."