"That's Luc," puts in the thirteen-year-old. "He's nice. But not very interesting. Don't tell him I said that."

"A lot of people are nice but not very interesting. Sometimes I think I'm one. It's not that weird."

"Anyway, assuming you want to let us our plan would be to have another Bell who can see some particularly useful things over to look at you, to make sure the world is Jane-compatible; send a Janegem there either with you or with one of our husbands' alts; scan the world for alts of ourselves and people we know; if there's a Bell, hand her copies of all our copiable magic and leave it to her; dispatch a Bell if you don't have one, which is unspecified, to lay down basic protections like forbidding earthquakes and in your case also deal with the Neuroi unless they're staggeringly intractable; see if we can copy your magic and distribute it to interested and trusted parties; and then put you back in the queue for more thorough upgrades when some Bell can be parted from her world long enough. Although you'll be able to contact us through Jane for spot assistance if something comes up."

"I can't go home for a few hours. Teleporting to specific people takes extra mana, and across worlds apparently takes even more extra mana. Unless you fix that or something."

"Well, I can try, if you like."

"I would like. We don't have a good idea what mana actually is, all we know is that Witches power our magic with something our bodies generate slowly. We can feel how much we have, sorta. Using too much at once knocks us flat for a few minutes, and using too much in one day makes us unable to do further magic, but doesn't necessarily impair us physically. We generate less mana as we get older, which is no longer a problem for me at least."

"Hmm, sounds complicated enough that just in case I should wait for Glass; she can either do it or call Lazarus, who's particularly good at seeing magic."

[Brainphone. On the house.]

She startles a bit. [No mana cost, unlike Chatterbox's special. Can I give it to other people?]

[The option's available but not default.]

"Hullo, Luc. Sorry to pull you away from whatever you were doing. In your opinion, are Belle and her counterparts people we want in our world?"

"I should say so," says Luc. "They're tireless, consummate altruists."

"Some worlds are dangerous, and others are not open for any but the most discreet tourism for information security reasons, but the remainder can be visited by well-intentioned people. If you're done with Luc, I can put him back?"

"Of course."

Pop. Pop.

"How many of you are there? At least three so far, and Pen said there were at least ninety-two worlds..."

"Most worlds don't have Bells. Most worlds on that list we just inherited when we took over our afterlife, and we discover new ones periodically - our current typical discovery mechanism yields Bells more often than not because we have a way to funnel new Bells in our direction that doesn't bother with anyone else. There are sixteen of us in contact right now."

"And you're all probably just a few steps away from being benevolent gods. The multiverse doesn't know what's gonna hit it."

"The question of whether we're gods or not depends a lot on what kind of distinction you're using the word to draw. I assumed control of an entity that most people on my planet worship and I think I'm doing a better job with the position."

"And the question of what the multiverse may or may not know is still above our pay grade. Glass - who will be finished playing cards with her children in a moment - is our best peek."