her_imperial_radiance | friendly door

Elspeth gets a door.

It's been so long she reels for a moment, and then she throws herself forward and almost lands in a peal of Bells. Yes, there's Shell Bell, there's Juliet and Aurora, there's Glass, there's some Matilda she hasn't seen before.

"Elspeth!" exclaims Glass.

"How long has it been?" Aurora asks.

"Seventeen years. Shell Bell - I need you to help me find Harley," says Elspeth.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

her_imperial_radiance

Elspeth, meanwhile, acts on Aurora's information and kills a hex to yoink Harley into her arms.

From:

pythbox

Whatever Aelise was about to say is interrupted by the air catching on fire everywhere it touches the incandescent figure in Elspeth's arms.

From:

cross_and_bow

Juliet's aura slurps up the fire; she's very bright, for a moment, but then it calms down in among the usual harmless licks of flame that dance on her person. Nothing catches; it is merely warm while her aura performs.

From:

her_imperial_radiance

Harley. It's me. With Bells. And she works her witchcraft on the vestiges of what Chelsa did to him.

From:

salus_populi

Aelise looks at Harley (who has by now finished torching and is back to an ordinary temperature) with startlement, then relief. Then she shakes her head and looks at Juliet.

"Tab. Mehitabel Marika Coscoroba. I met her eleven years ago, when she was six. And if I'm going to say anything more about her, I'm going to want some assurance that you're not quite as hostile as you look." She glances at Lizzie when she says this.

From:

prima_sequentem

Lizzie opens her hands slightly in an understated shrug.

From:

pythbox

Harley clings to Elsie and makes muffled sobbing noises.

From:

her_imperial_radiance

Elspeth holds him and she works.

From:

cross_and_bow

"Weren't you going to do the talking?" Juliet asks Lizzie. "Does she mean she wants me to turn my aura off?"

From:

giftedandtalented

Tab writes to Aelise: Would you please ask them if they can grab me down there like they did Harley?

From:

salus_populi

Aelise glances at the screen and says, "Tab would like to be included in this conversation, if you wouldn't mind fetching her. And since she is not currently buried in the sun, it shouldn't be quite so spectacular this time."

From:

prima_sequentem

"Turning your aura off would be conducive to reasonable negotiations," says Lizzie. "She means that she wants to know what we're doing here, what we want, and that we're not going to harm her or Tab or anyone else who might drop into the line of fire while we're talking it over. And there are probably some dicey secrets in the mix that she would rather we not mention to anyone without her say-so."

From:

cross_and_bow

Juliet withdraws her aura. "Tab's safe if she's a Bell like it sounds like she is, probably safe even if she's not, and if she is a Bell this is her jurisdiction and we are just here to hand her the ability to do whatever she pleases with the place; if you're lucky, she likes you." She snaps her fingers and spends a pentagon, and here is Tab.

From:

luminous_regnant

"In the interests of full disclosure, Elspeth is not a suitable repository for secrets."

From:

giftedandtalented

Here is Tab, indeed. The auras didn't come through on the security feed; she blinks a lot, when she gets a look at them. "Wow."

From:

incanted

"All this and more can be yours for nine ninety-nine," Aurora mutters under her breath. "Should any subset of us duck into Milliways?" she adds at normal volume.

From:

salus_populi

Aelise is now looking analytically at Harley.

From:

prima_sequentem

"Good question," says Lizzie. She is looking analytically at Aelise.

From:

salus_populi

Aelise says, very definitely to Harley: "Chelsa is retired."

From:

pythbox

He bursts into tears and clings to Elspeth.

From:

her_imperial_radiance

"Just retired?" mutters Elspeth.

From:

luminous_regnant

"World's Downsideable," reports Golden in an undertone.

From:

giftedandtalented

"I don't know what that means, but it sounds murdery; don't just up and kill her, please," says Tab, "she still has enough contact with the population for it to be a sharp shock."