Timothy is thoughtfully watching Tireh flap.

"Yeah, it's really nice. Free useless burnables."

"Did you think -"

" - crossed my mind but at some point it almost seems - ah, provincial - to - you think so?"

"Yup."

"Think what?"

"You're a Bell. It's a kind of person. They do things. Like become really furious about their species' lifespan, develop interdimensional transit, go to Godspring, become a mage, go home and teach literally everyone on their home world summoning before their fifth birthday, that's the kind of thing a Bell does."

"If that's the kind of thing a Bell does, um, then I'm not sure how you doubted..."

"I mean, none of the other ones have done that specific set of things, though giving magic to the masses seems like it's a bit of a theme."

"A Bell is a more specific kind of person than that. Are you clumsy do you talk in your sleep did you pick the spring you did in part because redmagery is gross, that sort of thing."

"This is a theme?"

"Hate mindreading, have 'bel' in their name somewhere - that's why they're called that - write down their thoughts, like being the person making decisions -"

"Don't use that part of my name."

"- sorry?"

"You didn't, it's okay, just don't start guessing where it is or anything? At least on my island everybody has three syllable names and you only use two except as an intimacy thing."

"Okay. Anyway, there are apparently quite a few Bells out there and you really really remind me of the ones I know well."

"I do talk in my sleep and so on!"

"Congratulations, this entitles you to high-trust resource access! Confirm with Bar, she can tell by magic instead of going off trait correlations."

She does. She is.

Timothy is smug.

Timothy is adorable.

Timothy is quite confident that a comprehensive survey of all Bells will establish he got the very best one.

Even though Cam had not accomplished anything at age four?

Yep. (Kiss.)

"So I'm supposed to conclude that you're another Bell?"