witches treasure children

[dark_light]

Here is Milliways. It's Milliways with an empty Belltower, but it's still a neat place to hang out between making bits of incremental progress in motion spells and coaxing advice out of the alethiometer and wedging herself into clan politics.

Comments

[pythbox]

"Maybe," says Sue, leaning into her but not unwrapping his arms.

[dark_light]

"Up to you," Amariah says, scritching his head.

[pythbox]

He closes his eyes and smiles. "You're nice," he declares.

[dark_light]

"I try. If I could take you home with me to get you out of solitary, I'd offer, but there's at least two reasons I shouldn't do that - one, you appeared here instead of walking in, so nothing would actually be accomplished if I brought you through my door, you'd still wake up eventually, and, two, we suspect that going to my world might cause your soul to manifest as a daemon like mine, and that'd just be darned inconvenient in a world where not everybody has them. Stella visited once and she made a wish against it, but it took a star, and it might not have worked if someone other than her had done it."

[pythbox]

"I don't want my soul out where everybody can get at it," he agrees, snuggling against her.

[dark_light]

"Yeah. That's... sometimes a problem, even at home," Amariah sighs.

[pythbox]

Sue looks at her.

"I'm sorry," he says softly.

[dark_light]

"It's okay," says Amariah. "I'd rather have Pathalan where I can talk to him than not. And me and Path, and your alt and his daemon, are all okay now."

[pythbox]

"Good," he says, snuggling her some more.

[dark_light]

"How's your Bell doing since you last wrote?" Amariah asks.

[pythbox]

"Good," he says. "We both graduated to Tactical, but then I graduated to Command and I haven't seen her since."

[dark_light]

"...Because solitary confinement, not because of some kind of falling-out?"

[pythbox]

"Because Command is on the other end of the solar system?"

[dark_light]

"Oh. That's a hike, yes, I could see that being a problem if you can't teleport," says Amariah, laughing a little. "Well, hopefully she'll graduate soon too."

[pythbox]

"Yeah, hope so," he says. "I miss her."

[dark_light]

"I bet she misses you too," says Amariah.

[pythbox]

"Bet she does," he agrees.

[dark_light]

"Ah, I wish there was something else I could do to help you," sighs Amariah. "You look just like my Kas, only a bit younger, and I hate to think of him shut up somewhere with no company... and Kas at least would have Petaal, that's his daemon."

[pythbox]

"Maybe I should go to your world," he snorts.

[dark_light]

"You know what, if you want to I'll open the door for you, but - their standing opinion is that it's not worth it in a world with no daemons. If you had a daemon, she'd be a lot like you, you know, your soul - and nobody but you could touch her without hurting you, unless they were closer-than-close already. And I assume you'd have to hide her, too, she'd have to be little shapes and tucked away all the time."

[pythbox]

"But I could touch her," he says. "And that'd be better than what I've got."

[dark_light]

"Right now she's - curled up inside you asleep somewhere," Amariah says, "or you'd be a zombie, not a whole person, and right now she doesn't need things - affection, attention, people to talk to - except through you, because she's asleep. You'd be taking one very bad situation and making it a slightly less bad but duplicated situation, and it's not like you could put her away again after you had her out once. I'd recommend talking to Kas and Petaal about it."

[pythbox]

"Okay," he shrugs.

[dark_light]

"I'll go get them," Amariah says, and she releases Sue and heads for the door and sticks her head out. [Hey Kas! I found a fifteenish you and he's been locked up in solitary, come help me keep him company and be advicey on possibly bringing him briefly into our world so he can get a daemon and not be so lonesome?]

[truthwright]

He appears and hugs her.

"Okay," says Petaal from where she's coiled around his neck as a brightly coloured snake, "where's the little-us?"