Unexpected, perhaps, but not necessarily unprecedented. These terribly rude fellows, for instance, seem to have some idea of what she might be, even if it's not the right one. Unfortunately, they seem more interested in jeering and attempted violence than explaining exactly what a mutant is and why they think she is one.

"DO NOT BE HITTING," howls the little ostensible mutant. "IT IS NOT HOW FIXING PROBLEMS!"

The men don't seem to be listening.

Pen is a little too occupied to be listening closely to this person. She socks a hooligan hard in the arm trying to get him off her.

"Yeah? And why'n'hell should we lissen t'you?" demands one of the men. He's not actively trying to harm Pen himself, on account of he's too busy nursing the possibly-fractured arm she'd given him. "Probably a freak or a freak-lover yerself!"

"That...isn't a reason to be less impressed with my threats of violence. I'm appealing to your self-preservation, you ninnies, not your nonexistent morals!"

If her intent was to get some of these guys off of Pen, it works; several of them decide it would be less futile to attack the mutant who hasn't demonstrated some sort of invulnerability.

Pen cocks her head and brushes grit off her leather pants. "A magic," she observes.

"Um, no? I'm a mutant. Like you," she says, gesturing to Pen's wings.

"Am not. Am angel." Pen starts trying to straighten out her feathers.

"I mean, sure, you absolutely look like an angel. But baseline humans just don't get born with extra body parts."

"Am angel like Mommy and sisters," says Pen. "Not a mutant. That some other thing."

"...Is your family super religious or something?"

The little angel seems to think this is hilarious.

"Glad I amuse you. So where is your family, anyway? Did these creeps kidnap you? Do you need help getting home?"

"Do need help home but a metal magic probably won't do thing. Door is break, family in Samaria but door go here."

"...If a door is broken, I think I would actually be above-average useful at fixing it. And it's not magic, it's magnetism. Like what sticks your grocery lists to your refrigerator."

"Door is magic, not a door shape problem. What a refrigerator?"

"...It's...what you put food in to keep it from going bad? How do you not know what a refrigerator is? Are you Amish or something?"

"What Amish?"

"...You know what? I am not qualified to handle this. Do you know what the Xavier Institute is?"

"No."

"Okay then. Will you come there with me anyway, since your parents don't seem to be immediately retrievable and I saved you from a gang of mutantphobic goons?"

"Sure, okay."

"I assume you can fly with those wings?"

"'Course."

None of the men make any move to defy her. Possibly because several of them are concussed.

Pen could not diagnose a concussion if she cared to. She looks for a place with enough running room and wingspan space to take off, and does.

The young woman, who has apparently forgotten to introduce herself, takes off in what is presumably the direction of the school. She occasionally glances back to make sure Pen is still behind her.

Pen is behind her, flapping occasionally.

"Okay." Pen lands on the roof.

She opens a door in the roof, and they descend into the building proper.

There are a lot of people here. Some of them want to know where Emily--her name is Emily, apparently--found such a cute kid with such pretty wings.

Emily will provide a brief summary, but "She's lost her parents and I'm taking her to the Professor, guys, I can talk later."

Pen waves politely to the curious people.

Eventually, Emily will usher Pen into an office, where a man in a wheelchair is sitting behind a desk marking papers.

"Hi," Pen says to this man.

"Hello," says the man. "My name is Charles Xavier. I'm afraid my daughter didn't mention yours?"

"Am Pen. Pen-in-nah."

Charles makes a brief puzzled face. "Do you have a surname?"

"No, is not angels thing," she shrugs. "Peninnah daughter of the angel Isabella and the mortal man Micaiah sia a Manderra sia a Edori? If wanting longer more name."

"I see. Where are you from?"

"Samaria. The Eyrie."

He put his papers down. "And where are those?"

"Samaria a world and a planet and a continent all same name. Eyrie angel hold."

"Am real angel! Samarian kind, not Alethia kind in the glass box."

"It is quite evident that you are not in a glass box. Until you arrived, no one here had met a real angel. Incidentally, should I be reconsidering my religious beliefs in light of this new information?"

"Dunno if there gods here. No one doing checking," she shrugs.

"...How on Earth would you check for that?"

"Magic? But most places not have any real gods."

"I wasn't aware magic existed."

"Sure magic exist. She do a magic with metal things," says Pen, pointing at Emily. "Unless is a technology? But looked a magic."

"It's her mutation. Mutants have been mistaken for magic many times, it's a completely biological phenomenon."

"Oh!" Pen snaps her fingers. "Like in Peace. Lots like magic but not."

"...Peace?"

"Is a world. One where Jane from!"

"And who is Jane?"

"Jane sort of sisteroid but not really. She a computer person and her daddy a one Daddy and her mommy a one Mommy, but she not a one Dars. Dars is purple and Jane green, Glass says."

"Dars is your sister, then? And you're saying that Jane's mother and father are...some kind of alternate universe duplicates of your parents? I confess, I have no idea what you mean by purple and green."

"Dars one sister, then Keziah then Ariel then me. And yes, and, nobody knows neither not even Glass but she say so anyway and people being all one template also all same color."

"So if you're from another universe, as you seem to be claiming, how did you get here?"

"Broken door! It supposed going here from nice bar but goed here instead. And did not go back bar when opened again after notice, but of course, never do, doors don't like me like they liking Shell Bell or Princess Elspeth."

"I have to admit, this is being more confusing than it's not. I'm a telepath. Is whatever's causing your mind to seem blank under your control at all?"

"Um? Oh. Am safed from things," Pen says. "Can let stuff like Sue. Sue even a mutant, can do like him or only do other kinds telepathing? Am sorry about the grammar but can't help."

"I think what's confusing me is what you're saying more than how you're saying it. You appear to be coming from a completely different cultural context, so of course there are things that would seem obvious to you that get left out of your explanation. And I don't know what exactly Sue can do. If it were under your control, and you could let me--or one of the students with telepahic ability, if that were more comfortable--in, briefly, it would be possible to glean a summary of your cultural background without touching your personal memories."

"Am eight, cannot just 'let in' things, what if some bad thing go with it? Only can let specific stuff. Sue, the one naked one Daddy saying name by magic, illusions, things. Cannot just say 'okay person do whatever' in case picking wrong person. Especially most mind stuff. If letting in bad thing for other wards just torch. If letting in bad thing for mind stuff maybe harder fix."

"Entirely reasonable. I apologize. So there's some kind of...bar? And it has a door that deposits people in different universes?"

"Takes people from wherever," nods Pen, "usually put them back where getting them, but door break."

"I see. So besides this door, is there any way for you to get home?"

"If was any Jane here Jane put me back, pop, right on Jovah. Isn't though, checked. If a one Mommy here she bring a Janegem do same thing, or Shell Bell can doors whenever wanting. Jarvises also can doors if knowing how but a Jarvis finded here maybe not know how. Isn't one, anyway, checked. If a one Daddy find me he do freecast while Sue linking and bring some Jane to put me home. Or maybe there a mutant who can do thing, dunno what all kinds."

"So far, we haven't found anyone who can traverse different universes," he said. "What exactly is a Janegem? Is it something to do with Jane's mutation?"

"...Jane not a mutant. She from Peace but she not a mutant she a computer person," explains Pen. "She not a human. They put her in a Device body when having too many accidents with Jane soul being in Aegis so now she not there any more, but she never a human. But she can in gems and see from them and anything she seeing can put anywhere else seeing. Also she do time so it all go same amount but sometimes she having the accidents and then it not work and time faster some worlds."

"Hm. Well, if we find someone who can put you back, we'll let you know," he said. "In the meantime, do you need a place to stay?"

"Yeah."

"We have empty rooms. And this place was, in part, created to be a safe haven, even if you weren't quite what we imagined."

"Okay."

He touches the first and second fingers of his right hand to his temple for a moment, and says, "you can stay in room 427 for the moment. I need to speak with the rest of the staff about your problem."

"D'you want me to show you the way?"

"Yes please."

In the hallway, another girl walks out to join them. "Hi," she said, and then tilted her head. "Huh, that is odd."

"A Dars face!" exclaims Pen.

"A. What?"

"You are look like my sister Dars. Damaris," explains Pen. "Are not one because did not the brainphone when checking, but looking like. Sometime happens."

"Huh. ...What's the brainphone?"

[Thing.] Emily is included too. Because that's polite.

Her hands fly to her head. "What the hell was that!? I mean heck. What the heck was that!?"

Emily also looks fairly confused. "Weird. Like telepathy but really, really not."

"Is the brainphone. Don't like?"

"It's very...um...it is profoundly synaesthetically weird. Like...imagine if someone talked, only instead of hearing it you felt it on your skin. Only in reverse? Sort of? It's not bad, it's just--very startling to have sprung on me all of a sudden."

"Oh. Don't have to do. Just showing."

"How do you use it to check for people?"

"Send message, don't work if person not there. Checking for Jane, for a one Mommy, one Daddy, ones sisters, more people. Nobody. Maybe didn't think of all everyone but knowing you only looking like Dars."

"I see. -How do you even get something like that, anyway? I guess the answer is magic, you mentioned magic to Emily...that seems very designed, though. Like if someone who had never experienced real telepathy tried to mimic it."

"Well, yeah. Is a wished magic."

"Wished? What kind of wishes?"

"Coin wishes. Are most often magic from all the," handwave, "people. Eos world start them."

"Huh. So what kinds of things can you wish for? Besides superpowers, apparently."

"Most any things if having right coins!"

"What kinds of coins are there?"

"Triangle square pentagon hex star evil arrow tenner."

"...What does an 'evil' do? Does it only grant wishes that hurt people somehow?"

"No, it just evil-looking pointy."

"So what are the distinctions between the different types of coin?"

"Points. And wish bigness."

"So the more stuff there is in a wish, the more points on the coin?"

"Yeah."

"Henh. How big a coin do you need to wish for world peace?"

"Having to deciding how do. If just wanting impossible for hurting each other I think star? Probably star."

"...I was joking. You can actually do that?"

"Not me. Not even have triangles. But most places ones Mommies in charge of have thing like that. Not Samaria because being very quiet because people be scared of suddenly magic and spaceship and stuff."

"Oh, yeah, easy!" Pause. "From most places. Some worlds not so much. Have an afterlife already then can't go in regular everybody one."

"I can't. Need Jane. Or Shell Bell or somebody else for go Downside. But when someone find me can put world there, get people if it okay - has to check for okay, otherwise scaring everybody and too many people all suddenly."

"The world handled the sudden public existence of mutants less than two decades ago," Edie says, composing herself. "Not without some amount of friction, but we handled it."

"So maybe they say fine have all people wanting however many," shrugs Pen. "But having to check."

"That's fair," she says. "I just. This. This is huge for me. For us."

Emily walks over to Edie and hugs her.

Edie, hugs back, clinging a little. After a minute she straightens up. "Right. We were going to show you your room." Beat. "Oh, come on."

"Hm?"

"The thing about Professor X," she says, "is that while he is one of the most intelligent men and most powerful telepaths on the face of the Earth, he frequently misses the details. What do you want to bet he didn't even ask if the little angel needed a different kind of bed from normal? Her wings are totally different from Warren's."

"Am need big bed for put wings, but am little angel," mentions Pen. "Could maybe fit in mortal bed."

"Alright. Well, he didn't put you in a room where anyone else was staying right now, so worst come to worst we can move the beds next to each other. Room 427, right?" she asks briskly before striding down the hall.

She would need at least three of them next to each other, ideally four.

"It was just a thought."

Pen shrugs. "Not tired now anyhow."

"Well, sure, it's the middle of the afternoon. ...Hm. Normally part of the reason we show people their rooms first is so they can drop off your stuff, but you literally only have the clothes on your back, don't you?

"Yeah."

"And made of leather to boot. We should probably get you some new clothes. It's not too hard to alter a shirt to allow wings through."

"Something bad about leather?" wonders Pen.

"It's August. Aren't you boiling in that outfit?"

"Little bit. Is for high altitude."

"Makes sense. It's easy to heat up metal with magnetism, so I've never had a problem with it, but I'm aware that the reason I don't have a problem with altitudes is that I have a way of keeping warm easily."

"Angels very warm. Is inconvenient when hot places, but Mommy safed us, so only a bit too warm."

"Convenient. Well, unless there are any objections, I'm going to see if I can find some old clothes in your size to cut wing holes in."

"Okay. Not skirts. Because flying."

"No skirts, or any skirts should be accompanied with leggings?" Edie gestures at Emily's beskirted figure.

"Leggings maybe work," concedes Pen. "Also maybe a pretty dress for not flying in."

"Sure thing," Edie says, and leaves, presumably to acquire clothing.

"So what do you usually do for fun?"

"Sing fly play games read."

"Well, we've got plenty of books, and flying's definitely always fun. Shall we head to the library, then? Most of the books are there, and the main library windows are a traditional take-off point for flying students who don't want to climb the stairs to the roof."

"Okay."

"Who is?"

"Warren Worthington. The third. He's the only other person here right now with birdlike wings. Angel Salvadore has wings too, but hers are shaped like a dragonfly's."

"But he not an angel, just some guy?"

"He's a mutant, yes. But I think he'd like to go flying with you. He always insists there's a difference between floating on magnetic fields and feeling the air catch under your own wings."

"Probably yes."

"So! What first, flying or books? I have no idea if the fact that these books are from a universe you've never been to before is a positive or negative."

"Maybe interesting, maybe not, dunno." Pause. "Is good you speaking a language I pentagon."

"Pentagon? That was one of the kinds of wishes, right?"

"Yes. After square before hex."

"Mmkay, fiction's over here..."

Pen browses fiction. Anything for eight-year-olds here?

Yep, absolutely. Pen is not even the youngest child in the building.

Pen picks out a book and looks for something backless to sit on.

There are, as previously mentioned, squashy probably-footstools.

Pen prods one, deems it acceptable, and sits and reads.

After a few hours, if Pen chooses to read that long, Emily says, "Papa found the person who left the door open to get you stuck here."

"Do they be get doors whenever wanting or if try few times or just random?" wonders Pen.

"...Random, it seems, but usually at least one every few months."

"Well, next time getting a door should hold for waiting till I get there."

"Yeah. He's going to see if he can find anyone else who gets doors, in case they get one sooner."

"Doors like Elspeth. But not much as Shell Bell, she doors whenever want because aura power. Somebody like them."

"I wonder if we'd be able to tell who it is that likes them, if a telepath got within range of someone opening a door."

"Dunno," shrugs Pen. "Doors not always so much like same people forever, either."

"People don't always like people the same forever," Emily says, shrugging carelessly. "I guess it doesn't really matter at this point, anyway. Not like there's anything we can do about it."

"Is not Bar who picking where doors and when doors," mentions Pen. "Bar does tasty things and napkins and does not doors, is not her."

"...The bar is a person?"

"Yeah. Is nice. Give me cake. ...A while ago. Am hungry."

"Oh, yeah, and it's almost dinnertime. Do you want to get snacks or something now, or wait a little and eat with everyone else?"

Pen kicks her footstool thoughtfully. "How long waiting?"

"...Thirteen minutes?"

"Okay, waiting. What is dinner?"

"...Mm...Brisket with mashed potatoes and gravy, string beans aaand lemon cake for dessert," she says thoughtfully. "Being best friends with a telepath can be so convenient sometimes, if I didn't have Edie ferrying me the information getting it would be a lot less convenient."

"Sounds nice," says Pen. She shelves her book.

"I wasn't anywhere near as good at flying as you are when I was eight," Emily comments as they head in the direction of the dining hall.

"Well, having do it different," allows Pen. "Also not having big sisters for teach it."

"Well, not big sisters, no...but Edie's dad has the same mutation as me, basically."

"He teach you flying?"

"Yep. And a lot of other stuff too. Magnetism is a skill-heavy kind of mutation."

Nod nod. "I not having any magic yet. Wishes, little ones, soon, then maybe enchanting."

"Sounds like fun! I wouldn't trade in what I've got, but your stuff seems more useful."

"Is good. But having be secret at home."

"Do not have to hide be angel. Unless going other worlds."

"Yeah. So, what's up with angels anyway? Some people where you're from just randomly have wings?"

"Is not random, is sometimes if angels parents."

"I mean, right, I guessed it was genetic, but...I mean, that seems like kind of a random thing to have happen?"

"Oh, hundreds years ago people colonize Samaria and put all technology computers everything away hiding and make angels by genetic engineering for control weather. But not telling everyone yet."

"You're genetically engineered? Wow, we don't even know for sure how mutants work. ...You have weather control powers?"

"Only on Samaria. Go up, singing weather songs, spaceship pretending be god do weather or put seeds or drop pills."

"Oh. Huh. ...Weather powers are a thing that exists, actually, Ororo's got them."

"Cool. I not have, is just telling spaceship to drop thing."

"How precise can the spaceship do? Ororo can do tiny microclimates to water plants and stuff."

Headshake. "Can't do. Do rain, sunshine, warm up, cool down, winds more or less, thunderbolts. Only, Mommy telling spaceship not give thunderbolts whenever song and check make sure with her instead."

"Ororo can do thunderbolts. She generally doesn't do it around people who might get hurt, though, she's pretty responsible, and if everyone with whatever gene you have can do weather stuff that seems like a good thing to restrict."

"Anyone can singing, if near enough ears. But easier for spaceship hear in sky. And easier for learning songs right growing up angel hold."

"Angel hold?"

"Are three. Eyrie, Monteverde, Cedar Hills. Angels live in. And mortals, more those even, but all angels."

"What's it like? ...Oh, Edie's finished with some of the clothes, she's going to dump them in your room and come meet us for dinner."

"Oh good. Eyrie is up inside mountain. So is Monteverde. Eyrie have singing all time all days, people sign up sing for hour take turns so always someone even nighttime. Cedar Hills on ground because Windy Point destroyed - thunderbolt from Archangel Gabriel because of bad things happen there. So Cedar Hills that province's angel hold now, on ground, like village."

"Oh wow, that's terrible. Archangel Gabriel? Um. I am extremely confused. You...said you didn't think there was a God in your universe?"

"No gods. Spaceship pretend being god actually spaceship. With AI. But not very smart AI. Jane ate it. It still work like before when she having accident though."

"And this results in people called the Archangel Gabriel."

"Is pretty normal angel name? Gabriel? Is one little older than Dars, now, in Monteverde, meet him when going visit there."

"I'm guessing this is all based on Earth mythology somehow? Considering that you mentioned a spaceship."

"Have an Earth," nods Pen. "Nobody live there no more. Huge huge war settlers were going from, kill most everybody, leave us alone though."

"Oh, most worlds not do that even if having Earths and space things. Just ours."

"Well, that's good," Edie says, rounding the corner. "Emily filled me in on everything the two of you have been talking about. How many worlds have space things?"

"Ummm." Pen starts counting on her fingers, then furrows her brow. "Depends on what counting. Some. Um, world like this with mutants, Peace, have aliens and war with the aliens and the ones Mommy and Daddy there win it? And now colonizing planets."

"The other universe with mutants in it is far in the future...I wonder how things are going there with mutants' rights," she murmured. "I wonder if that universe ever had ones of us in it."

"Maybe! Can check when finding everybody, Peace Downsides fine."

"Downside's your afterlife, right?"

"Yeah. Jane can go looking in for Emilies and Edies."

"Sure."

"...Odd question. How are your magic future worlds on homosexuality?"

"Worlds or, like, party people?"

"Depends. What does party people mean?"

"People who going to parties Mommies throwing. Last one first I go to and in a space plant in can't pronounce world! So big!"

"So the people with the magic?"

"No-o, lots people having magic just because they have worlds with lots."

"But they're the ones who have alot of magic because they have consistent interworld travel, because Milliways and Jane, and who would have gotten most of your social cues from."

"Actually Jane having accident most entire time I existing so we stuck in Samaria then. Only fix again a little while ago. Mostly knowing things from bedtime stories, then finding out all true."

"I was wondering whether the enlightened future-people still had a problem with homosexuality."

"...Well, nobody telling me what ones Daddies doing in the one room but if they baking cookies they don't share."

"...Ones Daddies? ...Your father and...other versions of him?"

"Mm-hm. Annnnd Glass married princesses. Two of them. And the one Mommy who a boy have a one Daddy who also a boy. Well, a Daddy, but a boy Daddy? Is complicated. And a one Daddy who a girl, like, shaped, I mean, and her one Mommy also a girl. And there another one Daddy who not together with a Mommy, with that one guy instead, and he a boy. But sometimes that one Daddy a girl. Because magic. And there a one Daddy who a girl for a little bit, and then a wolf did a wolf thing. A boy wolf. The wolf thing still a thing after stopped being girl, too. Probably forgetting stuff. There a lot of party people."

"Sounds like it."

'Edie, what are you doing!?' Emily transmits.

'Emily, there's no way we could keep it secret from an inter-universal cabal of magic users, especially if we start asking favors like 'please raise my grandmother from the dead.' Better to say it now, and if they don't like it they don't like it, than to piss them off by lying to them.'

'...I trust your judgement, I suppose.'

"Most of the mutant stuff is public," Edie explains out loud to Pen. "But there are things we still usually keep secret. A lot of mutants have physiological changes, like Warren's wings that Emily told you about, or Ororo's white hair and the Professor's sister's blue skin. I don't know if you're familiar with the phenomenon if you've only been in your own world most of your life...anyway. Emily and I are actually sisters. Our parents are...technically hermaphrodites, I guess? Medically, anyway--they look like men to any external examination, and neither would identify as anything else, but. Normally we don't admit to people who aren't part of the school that we're sisters, and it gets...wearing."

"Okay. Secret," nods Pen. "You each pick a daddy for keeping not secret?"

sigh "Yeah. Well, sort of. We didn't pick anything ourselves. Our dads both have this mutation. We ended up each going with the one who carried us."

"Glass and her wives have three little princesses but they just all have three moms. But is not a secret. Is a very very magic world."

"Lucky."

"Oh, hey, the doors are opening."

"Let's grab a stool. The chairs here all have backs."

"Thank you."

"Am short," Pen points out.

"True. Alright, I'll just leave this at the table and we can get food. D'you want me to carry your tray?" she asked, floating three metal trays up from the stack.

"I can."

"Well, yes, but I don't have to use up hands to do it. But sure," she floats one of the trays to right in front of Pen.

"Plenty of people would rather have things under their own control than not have to carry them, Emily."

Pen holds her tray. She imitates other people in collecting food on it.

"Hi!" says Pen. "Am lost angel visiting."

That is not exactly a helpful answer to most of these people. Edie can send a basic summary while explaining some of the details aloud so that Pen understands what she's communicating to her friends.

"Eye beams?" asks Pen quizzically.

Scott taps the visor he's wearing. "If I don't have this on, my eyes shoot uncontrollable plasma beams that punch through most materials."

"Oh. Dunno, but am nuke proof."

"No? But Shell Bell got nuke one time and then everybody make better wards and have better kind."

"Shell Bell a one Mommy, from Atlantis, and somebody mad about her taking over the world. And then her girlfriend bring her back but also Downside keep her so there two for a while and this before the Mommies fixing Downside so that one very unhappy but then they magic back together after she find her way Milliways."

Edie sends any context for that that she has that didn't get covered by the summary.

"We kinda got that."

"I'm still Jewish," Edie says sedately. "I don't care if religion turns out to be completely irrelevant, I'm still Jewish."

"This surprises absolutely no one," Jean comments.

"What is?" wonders Pen.

"Jewish is what you call a member of the religion Judaism. Judaism is one of a set of three religions, called the Abrahamic religions, that your world's aesthetic seems to have been based off of."

"Judaism's the oldest one, Christianity's in the middle, and Islam is the most recent."

"Oh. My world only having one religion. Edori do sort of differently, pronounce Yovah instead of Jovah, but mostly same. And Jovah actually a spaceship."

"More like the starship Golden Calf," Edie mutters.

"She's probably not going to understand that reference, you know."

Pen indeed does not understand that reference.

"The Golden Calf is a figure from Abrahamic mythology. Way back when, when Judaism wasn't even an organised thing, there were just these people wandering around in a desert who would one day found Israel and Judea, the people said, "We're wandering around in a desert because God told us to! This sucks!" and they went off to one of their religious leaders and said, "Make us a new god who won't tell us to wander around in a desert!" And then, presumably because the populace was threatening him, he told everyone to give him their gold jewelry, and he melted it down and made a statue of a calf, and the people started worshiping that. And then the religious leader's brother who outranked him came down from the mountain where he had been talking to God and completely flipped his lid. And ever since then the Golden Calf has become the iconic false god. Edie's referring to your spaceship that way because presumably the people who came to your planet and gave up their technology and stuff knew that their spaceship wasn't really God, but they told their descendents to worship it anyway."

"Well, it not make anybody wander deserts," Pen says. "Put rain where asking."

"He wasn't making them wander through a desert for the heck of it. Before then, they had been enslaved in a country called Egypt. The desert just happened to be between where they were coming from and where they were going to. And he did make sure they had enough to eat and drink and so on. Or so the story goes, anyway"

Pen shrugs and applies herself to dinner.

After dinner, does she want to go back to the library, or does she want to see the clothes Edie altered for her?

She wants to see the clothes! And then go flying.

Pen is slightly dubious about the frills, but too polite to say anything about them. "Thank you."

If Pen doesn't like the frills, Edie won't be offended. But Pen hasn't actually said anything about them, and Edie isn't reading her mind. "You're welcome. Is there anything else I can help with, or will you two be off to take advantage of the fact that since it's summer it's not too dark to fly yet?"

"I want to fly."

"Alright then, have fun."

"Back to the library, then," Emily says after Edie's left.

"Because go out window?" Pen inquires.

"Yep. Closer than the roof, and big enough to jump out of without awkward wrangling."

Nod nod.

Library! And then window! Emily hops out first, on the off chance that something goes wrong and Pen needs catching. Not likely, but better safe than sorry.

"...I assume the sparkly rock in your arm is perfectly normal in some way and not to be worried about at all?" she checks. Because you can never be too careful about the well-being of a small child.

"Is Kiss. Samarians have them," explains Pen.

Pen indeed cannot do that, but that only makes sense, since Emily is flying differently.

Pen's timezone of origin isn't this one, is it. It was a little after noon when she arrived. When is she likely to want to go to bed?

She is flagging already. But not so much that she can't fly for a while! She is so awake. Watch her soar. Watch her nearly crash into the building, whoops.

"Are you okay?" Emily asks, concerned.

"Yeahaaaaaa," yawns Pen. "Am fine, am safed. Don't even skinned knees any more because very especially not liking it."

"That's good, but I imagine that still wouldn't have been pleasant. Should we go inside? The sky will still be there tomorrow."

Yawn. "'Kay."

Luckily, someone took care of the bed issue while they were out. There are four of the narrow beds lined up next to each other and covered with a pile of pillows and blankets.

"Do you need a glass of water or a bedtime story or anything like that?"

"Well, what kinds of stories do you like?"

"Stories where lot of things happen! And things blowing up! And magic! And creatures! And going places where a lot of stuff!"

Pen has flumphed onto the bed on her front, wings splayed out and head turned to the side to listen attentively. "What kind magic?"

"The magic the boy did wasn't trained, so it was just a burst of energy," Emily explained. "The sorcerer had little gestures and herbs that he would use to make magic do things instead of just fizzing out everywhere. They didn't have any other type of magic in that kingdom, so it was just called magic."

"Okay."

Pen nods solemnly.

Nod nod nod!

"She should cut off its foot!" opines Pen.

Nod nod.

"Yay!"

Pen stretches a wing, lets it settle on the bed, nods.

"Drew straws?"

"When you can't decide on something, but it has to be decided, you usually settle it through chance. One of the ways of deciding things by chance is that you take as many straws as there are options, cut one of them shorter or longer than the others, and have an impartial party hold them in their fist so you can't tell which one is the odd one out. Then everyone who's arguing draws a straw. The person who gets the odd straw out either wins or loses depending on what kind of argument it is."

"Oh. Who win?"

"Fire hugs," giggles Pen.

"Yep! Luckily for the guard, he knew to drop to the ground and roll over when he got set on fire. But it distracted him and the other guard long enough for the boy to magic open the castle gates and for everyone to walk through. Those particular guards didn't follow them, presumably to avoid more fire."

Nod nod.

"They met more guards, of course. Some of them the fire-woman managed to hug, and some of them were pelted with birds that the singer called from the sky, and some of them were magicked to sleep, and some of them were industriously sworded at by the swordswoman with the excellent new sword the sword-smith had made for her."

"Pelted! With birds!" cackles Pen.

Pen cackles.

"Hooray!"

"The sword-smith expressed the opinion that he felt that this might have ended a little anticlimactically, and when he had been imagining this he had imagined there might be, oh, explosions or something. The boy offered to provide explosions. The swordswoman-countess told him firmly no."

Pen cracks up.

"So once they had rested and provisioned themselves, the merry band took a squadron of the county's soldiers and they all set off for the tower of the evil sorcerer."

"I bet they win," predicts Pen.

"Well, yeah. It's a story, after all. The good guys almost always win in stories."

"Yeah. But say how winning."