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Bella brings two blank notebooks to school the next day. Her old one is safely computerized and boxed up with its predecessors.
At lunch, she sits with Angela; Jessica and Eric and Lauren sit at the same table but mostly talk to each other, and Mike is nowhere to be seen.
Bella is just about on time to gym, thanks to an overnight icing that means she has to pick her way with extreme care across the slippery grass or the slick sidewalks. The second time she falls down, she gives up on attempting any dignity at all, and, cradling her thwacked elbow, scoots the rest of the way to the gym on her rear. This leaves her with damp jeans but no further injuries, and they were a little damp anyway from the falls.
She doesn't have time to do more than smile and wave at Alice on her way to get her mat and get out of the way of careening balls. She spends the class doing the subset of her safe activities that won't stress her elbow.
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self_composed
edgeofyourseat
Alice doesn't have the head for spatial relations necessary to figure out which pillar.
So he just goes through all of them, methodically, starting at the stairs. No signs of secret passages, no places he can put his hand through. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
So he just goes through all of them, methodically, starting at the stairs. No signs of secret passages, no places he can put his hand through. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
self_composed
The coin disappears.
It fucking disappears.
Bella returns her attention to the book. This is officially much, much more interesting than her broken leg.
"- Attack and Defenʃe, and other Uʃes. Theʃe Powers are marvelous and I value them and wiʃh them paʃʃed on to future Perʃons who may come to underʃtand them. However the Powers come with a Cost, borne in Pain."
Uh-huh...
"For the Firʃt-Coin, the least prick of a Pin will ʃuffice, yet for greater Coins greater Pains are required. Only Pain and not laʃting Injury is needed and so Gains may yet be made in the relief of ʃickneʃʃes and Wounds."
Bella turns the page.
"Make a Coin by producing in thyʃelf a Pain, and then moving thine Pain through thy Mind from Left to Right. Thine Coin will appear, in whatever sort correʃponds to the uʃed Pain."
Bella is absolutely certain that this would have made no sense a minute ago.
But now - it does.
She moves her leg, abruptly, sharply, and she moves that pain through her mind. Left to right.
And she's holding a pentagon with a hole in the middle of it, and it glows a soft red.
Damn.
It fucking disappears.
Bella returns her attention to the book. This is officially much, much more interesting than her broken leg.
"- Attack and Defenʃe, and other Uʃes. Theʃe Powers are marvelous and I value them and wiʃh them paʃʃed on to future Perʃons who may come to underʃtand them. However the Powers come with a Cost, borne in Pain."
Uh-huh...
"For the Firʃt-Coin, the least prick of a Pin will ʃuffice, yet for greater Coins greater Pains are required. Only Pain and not laʃting Injury is needed and so Gains may yet be made in the relief of ʃickneʃʃes and Wounds."
Bella turns the page.
"Make a Coin by producing in thyʃelf a Pain, and then moving thine Pain through thy Mind from Left to Right. Thine Coin will appear, in whatever sort correʃponds to the uʃed Pain."
Bella is absolutely certain that this would have made no sense a minute ago.
But now - it does.
She moves her leg, abruptly, sharply, and she moves that pain through her mind. Left to right.
And she's holding a pentagon with a hole in the middle of it, and it glows a soft red.
Damn.
edgeofyourseat
Pillars that are clearly not big enough to hold an entire person, he skips. At first.
Then he recalls that Bella fell through a brick fucking wall.
It still wouldn't make that much sense for the pillar at the bottom of the chimney to be any smaller than the chimney, but fuck it. He goes back and starts checking the rest.
Then he recalls that Bella fell through a brick fucking wall.
It still wouldn't make that much sense for the pillar at the bottom of the chimney to be any smaller than the chimney, but fuck it. He goes back and starts checking the rest.
self_composed
Bella tries to kick the wall, to get another coin. This hurts - enough to net her another pentagon, clinking together next to the first - but only because she moved her leg. As far as her leg is concerned, there is no wall to kick, and her foot is sticking out through it.
She's going to have to read the rest of this book.
In the meantime, she is very done with her leg being broken.
She makes a wish, stands up, and - hands held out in front of her - walks out of the room, book under one arm and remaining pentagon clutched tight in her hand.
She's going to have to read the rest of this book.
In the meantime, she is very done with her leg being broken.
She makes a wish, stands up, and - hands held out in front of her - walks out of the room, book under one arm and remaining pentagon clutched tight in her hand.
self_composed
"Ayep," says Bella.
She blinks, and looks at her book, and at her bead.
"I have magic powers now."
She blinks, and looks at her book, and at her bead.
"I have magic powers now."
edgeofyourseat
He tries to come up with a response to this.
He settles, after a moment, on: "What the hell?"
He settles, after a moment, on: "What the hell?"
self_composed
"I'm at least as surprised as you are." She half-turns, and puts her arm back through the wall of the pillar. It goes like the pillar's not even there. She puts her weight on the leg that was formerly broken, and finds it just as fine as it was before she fell. "They're kind of fucked-up magic powers, though."
self_composed
"You're going to love this," Bella realizes. "I can make coins that I can then use to grant myself wishes, of various sizes. The coins are made out of pain. I broke my leg falling down and fixed it with itself."
edgeofyourseat
"...Yep, you're right, I love it," he says, grinning a little. "Except that if anybody's gonna have those magic powers it should clearly be me. I get hurt more than you do and I like it."
self_composed
"I'm not actually sure if you can have the powers," Bella says, putting the pentagon in her pocket for the time being and looking at the book. "This is dedicated to someone named Elias Frobisher's 'descendant'. Might also be why I can go through the pillar and the chimney and you couldn't. I need to read the rest of it."
self_composed
"Probably, yes," Bella says unapologetically. She picks a different pillar - one that is not insubstantial to her - to sit against, and she opens the book back up.
edgeofyourseat
Just to satisfy his curiosity, Alice puts his hand against the pillar (it was one of the big ones, after all) where she walked through it.
Nope.
Shrugging, he sits down against it.
"Wanna tell me what it says?"
Nope.
Shrugging, he sits down against it.
"Wanna tell me what it says?"
self_composed
"Paraphrased, Elias Frobisher believed this book would be found by his descendant, and wanted to pass on what he knew about magic. The book came with a coin that was like this -" She shows off the pentagon - "only six-sided and it didn't glow red, it was just kind of sparkly. I wished on it to get the power to make my own coins, which I can do by being in pain and moving the pain left to right, which, swear to God, makes sense after use of the hexagon coin for some reason. There's apparently types."
She bites the inside of her cheek a little and gets a triangle, then another triangle when she pokes at the bitten place with her tongue; these too glow red. "Like so. I think this is the smallest kind, but I need to read more."
She turns the page again.
She bites the inside of her cheek a little and gets a triangle, then another triangle when she pokes at the bitten place with her tongue; these too glow red. "Like so. I think this is the smallest kind, but I need to read more."
She turns the page again.
self_composed
"I know," Bella enthuses. "This page is a chart of kinds of coins. There's five kinds, but Elias never quite got as far as making the star kind, at least not before he wrote this book... which he says was at least in part because using stars often goes very wrong. The other kinds work better and a hexagon's enough to grant permanent magical power. Not just the power to make coins..." She turns the page. "If I get hurt really bad - like enough that the hospital would have to remove something on the order of an entire foot or a lung or something to save me, under normal circumstances - then I can make a hexagon and use it to be able to fly, or turn invisible at will, or have super-strength. I could be a freaking comic book hero."
The next page has a drawing. She blinks at it and then covers it with her hand.
The next page has a drawing. She blinks at it and then covers it with her hand.
self_composed
Bella shuts her eyes, moves her hand, and turns around the book. "That's an illustration of how Elias made the hexagon I just used," she says.
It appears that Elias opted to stick his arm into a cage full of starving rats. A caption under the image explains that while this was agonizing, it also created numerous smallish wounds, each individually something he could take care of with a Second Coin instead of having to expend a Third.
It appears that Elias opted to stick his arm into a cage full of starving rats. A caption under the image explains that while this was agonizing, it also created numerous smallish wounds, each individually something he could take care of with a Second Coin instead of having to expend a Third.
self_composed
Bella puts her hand back over the image and turns around to read the opposite page. "I suppose so," she says. "I wonder if I actually am related. There doesn't seem to be an index... Oh, that's convenient, a table of recommended methods for getting certain coins with ideal pain-to-injury and pain-to-coin ratios. Kind of outdated probably, still a useful reference."
She reads on, turning the old pages carefully. "Aha. He made the secret passage in his house so only his descendants could get into it, and his descendants would always be able to get into it - so even though there were walls put around what used to be the passageway, I can just walk right through them. But..."
She blinks at something in the book, then offers Alice a triangle. "I think you can use the coins. Up to and including using a hexagon to get your own magic powers if I'm ever able to produce one, or we find someone else who does magic and they'll give one over. You just can't get into the secret room is all. Try doing something with the triangle coin I made; those are cheap, I could make a dozen by poking the wire end of a spiral notebook binding twelve times."
She reads on, turning the old pages carefully. "Aha. He made the secret passage in his house so only his descendants could get into it, and his descendants would always be able to get into it - so even though there were walls put around what used to be the passageway, I can just walk right through them. But..."
She blinks at something in the book, then offers Alice a triangle. "I think you can use the coins. Up to and including using a hexagon to get your own magic powers if I'm ever able to produce one, or we find someone else who does magic and they'll give one over. You just can't get into the secret room is all. Try doing something with the triangle coin I made; those are cheap, I could make a dozen by poking the wire end of a spiral notebook binding twelve times."
edgeofyourseat
He leans forward, takes it, looks at it for a moment.
"A cheap coin probably only grants cheap-ass wishes, right? Mm..."
There's a folded sheet of paper in the back pocket of his jeans; it looks like it's been through at least one laundry cycle. He rolls it into a long, thin cylinder and looks at it, holding the coin.
The end of the cylinder catches fire. The coin is no more.
"...Huh," says Alice, pinching out the flame. "I just did magic."
"A cheap coin probably only grants cheap-ass wishes, right? Mm..."
There's a folded sheet of paper in the back pocket of his jeans; it looks like it's been through at least one laundry cycle. He rolls it into a long, thin cylinder and looks at it, holding the coin.
The end of the cylinder catches fire. The coin is no more.
"...Huh," says Alice, pinching out the flame. "I just did magic."
self_composed
Bella grins.
She looks down at the book again.
"Careful with stars, star wishes go wrong, if you get a star consider just never using it, etcetera etcetera... third-coins are enough to grant fantastic skill at a mundane thing, like speaking a language. You could break your arm and become decent at the piano, Alice." A page turns. It's not a very thick book, and Elias was liberal with his illustrations. "Seems like the square 'second coins' are where it's at for efficiency though. You can get them without doing actual injury - stepping on a Lego would do it, I bet - and they can do some really decent stuff if you apply them right..."
She looks down at the book again.
"Careful with stars, star wishes go wrong, if you get a star consider just never using it, etcetera etcetera... third-coins are enough to grant fantastic skill at a mundane thing, like speaking a language. You could break your arm and become decent at the piano, Alice." A page turns. It's not a very thick book, and Elias was liberal with his illustrations. "Seems like the square 'second coins' are where it's at for efficiency though. You can get them without doing actual injury - stepping on a Lego would do it, I bet - and they can do some really decent stuff if you apply them right..."
edgeofyourseat
"See, I totally want your magic powers," he says cheerfully. "Ooh, what kind of stuff?"