That causes Max -

- Adana -

- and Cypress to start laughing.

Spring elbows Prime. "I think everyone is for naming it that, Cam, nicely done."

Prime allows himself a smile. "Only if we put a literal belfry on the top of it. So everyone knows what it's called."

"Sure. One bell for the whole thing or one per, with an addition every time we welcome somebody new?"

"Just the one, I think. Additional ones could get very messy if we give it, say, a century and have an army of ourselves. Architecturally messy, you understand, the place would still be rather neat."

"Eh, I could give it tiers, but sure. One big bell."

"And then all of the littler Bells inside?" giggles Cypress.

"I wasn't thinking big as in bigger than any extant person-Bell, but I guess I'd want to see the landscape I'm putting it on before I start making decisions about scale."

"Well, there isn't anything left for us to do here, so - I think we should head back so you can look at the landscape. Possibly also find some method to disguise the portal tree before we go."

"I could give it an extra layer of bark that also includes a hidden door?"

"That, do that."

"With the caveat that you should please be very careful about adding things to the portal. Please don't disturb the tree it's in too much, especially not around the portal itself."

"How careful is careful?"

"Mmm - don't touch anything within three inches of the portal at all, but the area outside of that is fine."

"In that case I'm not sure I can do a layer of bark that doesn't look bizarre."

"I'm pretty sure we can manage an illusion, but the problem with illusions are that they aren't actually protective. It just looks like an ordinary tree." He sighs. "Essentially, we're having this problem because we had a Zev make the portal and I couldn't make it fancy and protective."

"Bizarre bark layer plus illusion?"

"... Sure. Bizarre bark layer plus illusion."

"I can probably also tweak things to make the bark layer less bizarre. Just - not around the portal."

"Yeah." Cam walks around the tree speculatively, and then makes - a bark layer. It sort of bulges, since it has to be three inches away from a portal that reaches down to ground level and then blend in with the tree's roots, but it actually looks okay, considering. He reaches for a nook in the bark and tugs and displays a cunningly-hinged door. "Bark."

"Oo, nice," praises Adana, and then she looks speculatively at the tree. "Hey, Prime, it's fine if I mess with the other side of the tree, right?"

"... Yes. Tentatively. Same 'three inches of do not touch' apply here, though."