where have you gone?

[small_magics]

Isibel likes being able to ask at any time that a mirror of herself, from another world but with the same soul, visit her and speak with her. She doesn't do it too often, not even every day, but it is soothing to have the other Bells behind her on the long and arduous project of figuring herself out again so that she can do as Bells are meant to do.

She asks Jane to send her whoever is taking their turn, one day, and Jane does not respond.

She broadcasts this information, and her alarm, to her beloveds.

Comments

[endragoned]

"Visit your parents, then, my love."

[small_magics]

"You could accompany me if you wished. Perhaps hanging back to a safe distance until I have explained you. Although the dragon could come nearer without prior explanation."

[endragoned]

He laughs.

"We'll fly you there," he says. "And I will hide, until you have explained me."

[small_magics]

Isibel nods.

"I do not know how difficult it may be to explain you," she adds. "I have not often spoken with either of my parents about our ancient enemy."

[endragoned]

"I am very patient," says the demon, and he kisses the top of her head.

[small_magics]

"I know you are." She would have had staggering difficulty living on an uninhabited island for ten thousand years and retaining her sanity.

[endragoned]

He grins.

"Do you want to go now?"

[small_magics]

Isibel looks around her home. It is quite devoid of anything that requires her ongoing attention.

"Yes," she says.

[endragoned]

Whimsically, the demon picks her up and carries her outside. The dragon meets her there, and conjures himself a saddle and so on so that she can climb aboard and fly in comfort.

[small_magics]

Isibel sits quite happily, and thinks them the way to Silverbranch.

[endragoned]

They fly.

The demon turns himself invisible for the trip; the dragon does not.

[small_magics]

And there is Silverbranch. It is not so far, on dragonback, only a few hours.

[endragoned]

The dragon finds somewhere convenient to land.

[small_magics]

Isabella kisses her invisible demon-beloved goodbye and hops off of her dragon-beloved and kisses him too and heads through the village in search of her parents' home.

Eventually she comes out again, with a single elf who strongly resembles her following.

"Beloved, this is my mother Rania," she says.

"I See you," says Rania to the dragon. "But - not all of you, if I understand rightly." She looks around.

[endragoned]

"That is true," the dragon says gravely. "The rest of me is waiting until he might be made welcome without alarming anyone."

[small_magics]

"Isibel has been unharmed this long," says Rania. "I will not be alarmed. But perhaps it would be prudent to travel farther from the village," and she indicates a direction.

[endragoned]

The dragon nods, which is something of a momentous event considering the size of the dragon's head, and he ambles off in the indicated direction.

[small_magics]

Isibel and her mother follow.

"We will be unobserved here," Rania eventually says.

[endragoned]

The demon appears.

He has neglected to put on pants.

[small_magics]

A blink is startled out of Rania.

"It is more startling to see with my own eyes what I had previously heard only as a story," she murmurs. (She resolutely keeps her gaze above the waist.)

Isibel goes to her beloved and puts her head on his shoulder. She thinks that her mother would prefer it if he were wearing pants, although Rania would never dream of drawing attention to the fact that he is not.

[endragoned]

He shrugs and stretches his wings and conjures himself a pair of comfortable trousers with a hole for his tail.

[small_magics]

Rania does not visibly relax - that would be impolite - but her eyes move about more freely.

"I am told that you have no names," she says to the demon and dragon.

"None have been needed among ourselves," says Isibel.

[endragoned]

"It might be convenient to have some, now that we know more people," says the demon, "but we haven't thought of any that we like."

[small_magics]

"I am most likely to think of elven names," says Rania, "were I to propose ideas."

Isibel can tell, and shares with her beloveds: Rania would just love to name them.

[endragoned]

"We would not object to elven names," says the dragon.