It lurks. Oh how it lurks.
"Lazarus would definitely like it here," says Libby. "And he is nice and fluffy and harmless and could probably help you study any magic you feel like studying."
"Libby, Bella," says Resident Bella, "Addy, the Imperial Factotum."
"She can copy witches' powers by touching them. Except me. I don't like her enough to let her through the way I can sometimes with Elspeth and Edward," says the golden one, smiling thin-lipped.
"I am not an ingot," says Libby. "Lazarus is, though. He... I'll go with 'sees'... he sees magic."
She gets her handshake. Her face falls.
"He would be willing to visit," says Libby. "Are you enthusiastic about magic? You could be enthusiastic about magic together."
"Understatement," mutters Elspeth.
"Sounds like a good idea to me," Bella agrees. "Is there any known way to summon Milliways or does it just appear at apparent random?"
"There are people known to be able to summon Milliways," says Libby. "I'm not one of them."
"Nobody here, that I know of," Elspeth says, "but I met a lady who I think might have been a version of Addy in there once who said she could. And I think if she couldn't she would have just lived there all the time."
"I've met a few people who can," says Libby. "Or at least, they said so and I had no reason to disbelieve them. Nobody we know, though."
"The Addy I met said she spent a while pleading first, but she did this the first time she ever found the bar, so she doesn't know if that had anything to do with it," Elspeth said.
"One of mine claimed it all started when she stole a salt shaker," Libby recalls. "And that she carries said shaker around as a good luck charm. The other two were less inclined to theorize."
"How much would the bar be likely to mind if I stole a saltshaker?" Bella asks thoughtfully.
"I wouldn't do it," Elspeth says. "But that's less about me having expectations that she'd mind and more about stealing not being nice and the bar being nice."
"I've never tried. The petty thief in question didn't mention anything either way. At a guess, though, I'd say she wouldn't care much."
Golden Bella pats his hand and says, "Since no one present can summon Milliways, I suppose we'll accommodate you here as long as it takes for someone to find it. Do... ingots? No, only Bella is an ingot. What is it that you both are? Do you require any particular amenities that ordinary humans don't?"
"Mints. We're mints. I don't require all the amenities that ordinary humans do - for instance, it is not necessary that I sleep - but basically if you handle us like humans you won't be far wrong," Bella shrugs.