"Especially if she can imitate my hexes. I suppose we've seen more impossible things before."

She looks between them. Takes in the fact that the other Naima really is pregnant.



"I can go in the anti magic cell for a minute."

He regrets having been cruel to the poor woman. This isn't her fault – unless she's a willing accomplice who agreed to have her memories suppressed for the duration, which is still entirely possible but looking increasingly unlikely and anyway doesn't make much difference in the moment. 

"I think that might be for the best. But – do you need anything first? You've had a long journey." 

" - okay, yes, technically, I am exhausted and want to eat something and would really really like to see Wishbone at his earliest possible convenience, but what I most want is for you to agree that we can continue this conversation as soon as you've determined that Drosselmeyer is safe."

"Of course."

"Okay. Then I'll go. Do you want me to show myself there, or do you not want me alone in your house."

"Naima, you could – " oh, no, that's the worst thing he could have said – 

" - sure, it'll only take a minute. Do you know where it is?"

"Yes." 

She'll just let the other Naima follow her and lock her in a box. Fine. Whatever.

Drosselmeyer is fine. 

That is to say, he's Mother-Ginger-and-her-Polichinelles, Nutcracker-transforms-into-Prince, coffee dance, chocolate dance, Nutcracker transforms into prince again, Nutcracker transforms into prince , which Élie reads as "excited about his new construct body." There aren't any signs of magical tampering, either on Dross himself or any of the protections they set up since Volnagur's attack.

He updates Dross on the construct progress. He resets the alarms, just in case. He goes home. 

Naima stares at the walls of the cell, while the other Naima goes back to work. 

She remembers so many things that nobody else is supposed to know. She remembers the deal with Mephistopheles. She remembers booking Alfirin, and traveling through Nexland. Of course, if her memories have been fabricated, it's possible that none of that ever happened. They would be very inventive things to fabricate, though.

She waits for her hus- for Elie to come back.

He contacts Naima as soon as he's back on the material plane. Dross is fine. At least as far as I can tell. 

That's good. The - whoever she is - didn't make any trouble. I figured she didn't need to be watched constantly in the anti magic field, so I went back to work?

I promised her we would keep having this conversation when I returned. She might be able to help us figure out what she is, or who's behind all this.

I agree. I - kind of got the sense that she wanted to talk to you more than to me. But I can come back if you think it's important.

I'd prefer to have you there, but – she thinks she's you. I think she'd be more comfortable knowing that someone was out there, doing your work. 

Yeah. That's what I would want.

So he stops in to visit the other Naima. 

"Are you comfortable? Can I bring you anything?"

He keeps obviously treating her like a stranger that he's trying to be polite to, which hurts much worse than the hunger or the tiredness, frankly.

"Did all of the stuff with Mephistopheles really happen?"

That's the second time in as many conversations he's had with this woman where she's managed to come up with the most destabilizing possible response in the first round.

"I can't speak about that," he says, before he can get into any real legal trouble. He wants to reassure her that of course it did, but she's not Naima and he can't. But then, she's not Naima, and she knows, which narrows things down to a very small list of conspirators – Volnagur, reformed and scheming already? Arazni knew enough about their plans to take advantage of them, but did she know enough about the contract to set something like this in motion? Mephistopheles himself? He needs to tell the others as soon as he's out of the anti-magic field, and maybe more urgently contact their Axis lawyers. 

" - Sorry. Bad opener," she says, belatedly remembering that he doesn't think she's Naima and she doesn't know if she's Naima and that could have been really bad. "I didn't - did all of the stuff with Nexland happen."

"Yes," automatically, before he remembers that he's not supposed to be leaking information. "– or, you might want to specificy which stuff." 

"No, I'm trying to determine whether my memories of secret information are at all accurate without needlessly leaking all of that information to anyone who might be watching. - listen. I think that you should Scribe's Binding me, and read the book. If you're not willing to pay for the labor I can pay for it myself, if you let me out of here, but I expect you to prefer the monetary cost to the security risk and to not be willing to refuse the request outright, unless there's some reason I'm not thinking of why this is a bad idea."

He doesn't say, it's worked before. 

"We could also try moving this to a private sanctum, but – if you think it's best. It might be the only way to find out where you come from, if you have suppressed memories. We'll pay for it, of course, I can make it in" – does she know about the fast demiplane, that one's not much of a secret at this point – "I mean, it won't take too long." 

"All right. And - Elie?"

She's - not actually entirely sure he'll grant her this. He would grant it to Naima. But he doesn't think she's Naima. She's... probably not Naima but if she is then she doesn't want whatever the other Naima is to be paging through her.

"I don't want the other Naima to read it. Just you. Will you do that? You can summarize what's in it, after, if you decide that's indicated, just - I don't want her to read it."