"Sorry," he says apologetically. Then he turns and departs, and goes looking for her alts.

"Hello. I'm looking for some sort of advice on Spring. From a Bell."

"Kiss her on the back of the neck," calls Phix from an adjoining room, one with computers in it.

"What are you looking for?"

"What she would want me to do if she knew in advance she was going to fall in love with me thanks to a disturbing conspiracy love necklace."

"And didn't know if it'd be permanent?"

"Yes. Please."

"Be easier if she knew. If it's permanent - then there's no point to treating her like she's incompetent, not when she's not going to get any more competent. If it's not, then - well, then it actually depends. I don't know for sure if she'd want it reversed, although I'm working on a spell in case I come up with something."

"... Why wouldn't she want it reversed?"

"It's not like it's - actively controlling her. It changed her, but it sounds like a one-time deal, and not on something trivial like whether she likes apricots. What would happen? Would she be able to understand the thoughts she generated during the period she was affected or would they be so much gibberish? Would there be more side effects - emotional or cognitive or magical or mnemic or personality-affecting or who knows what - if you just rip out the new thing like it's so much wood and plaster? Putting her back exactly the way she was would mean editing out a few hours of memories completely, obviously, so we have to do something else - the memory loss solution is pretty drastic for the same reasons the necklace is scary. And I don't think you're planning to torture her enough to make it appealing by comparison, although I suppose you could be doing it by mistake. I mean, I'm trying to design a fix that doesn't have these problems, so is Phix, so is Ice, but we don't know if we're going to be able to do it at all, let alone whether we'll be able to handle it neatly."

"That's. Not how I was thinking of it at all. But I suppose that was the point. Thank you."

"...Please avoid accidentally torturing her."

"I was trying not to? But for safety's sake, what do you consider 'accidentally torturing her'?"

"I have little to no idea what you've been saying to her, but I have been in a comparatively very abbreviated form of the situation where an Adarin's opinion is for some reason both important and negative. It doesn't really help much if the opinion is negative for outside reasons and there is technical acknowledgment of victim status where it belongs."

"Oh. No. I can go make sure, but - I'm quite certain I didn't do anything of that sort."

"Strictly positive opinion? So you consider her rational, competent, trustworthy, useful, pleasant company, an expert on her own brain, the works? And I suppose you were really here for Phix's advice and that only because Spring was coy?"

"Yep."

"... I think I understand now. Thank you."

"You might have legitimate non-insulting reason to talk to the new Adarin. Get information about the necklace's effects in nice neat numerical terminology."

"Mm. I feel like it would be more prudent to talk to Spring." Pause. "And apologize for accidentally insulting her by treating the love effect as 'not her own.'"

"That works too. But you can and probably should talk to the new Adarin at some point."

"Yes. Eventually. Thank you."