"I'm Isibel," sighs Isibel warmly.

"Yes," agrees Isibel. "You're a tiny dragon and a human."

"I'm a daemon!" says Petaal. "I can be any shape I want, look," and she climbs along Kas's arm and onto Isibel's opposite shoulder and down into her lap and becomes a viscacha.

"Ooh," murmurs Isibel, and she pets the fluff.

"The Belltower," repeats Isibel. "I don't think so."

"I should take you, then," he says, cuddling her some more. "So you can meet all the rest of you. I think you're number eleven."

"No." Snuggle.

"I'm broken," mumbles Isibel. "They try not to..."

"Who tries not to what," says Kas.

"My - yous. Try not to hurt me."

"...hurt you how?"

"When he's awake - if he loses focus - he reads my mind." She closes her eyes. "I don't think much anymore."

Snuggles! Thinking is not necessary for snuggles. Snuggles are nice.

"I'm so sorry," he says, cuddling her.

"It's not their fault," she says. "We had to."

Snuggle snuggle.

[Roger.]

Amariah appears a minute later. "What's - oh, new Bell," she says. "Friendly new elfy Bell. Who - intensely upsets you? Hi."

"She has a me but she says he can't help reading her mind all the time," says Kas.

"Sometimes they sleep," sighs Isibel, "sometimes they concentrate, sometimes I sleep, sometimes I concentrate -"

"- How long has this been going on?" asks Amariah slowly.

"A year - and some moonturns - I don't count them - it's spring again -"

Kas cuddles Isibel. So does Petaal.

She cuddles back.

"Goddesses all. Okay. Elfbell. I know thinking must be - agonizingly hard right now - but you need to answer just a few questions - okay? If we can fix it, can you put yourself back together - if we can magic the mindreading away and you're safe and private in your own head for forever - can you fix it?"

"But maybe? Okay. We're not short on time for you, if you can do it then we will find a place to put you that's safe and you can work on it there, okay, we will take care of you - there are ten of us and we are okay - will you trust us to decide things for you till you're put back together?"

"...You should talk to my beloveds," sighs Isibel. "About that."

Petaal cuddles up in Isibel's lap, making helpless little sniffly noises.

"Okay. We'll talk to them," says Amariah. "We'll figure something out with them. We'll have to talk to them - can you take us through the door to where they are? And then if you wake them up I can send you to sleep, and keep you that way, until everything's fixed, will that be all right?"

"I'll take you where they are and wake them and go to sleep and when I wake up I'll be safe," says Isibel trustfully. She kisses Petaal - a chaste little kiss on the head - and disentangles herself and collects her book and pen again and goes to the door.

Kas picks up his fluffy daemon and follows.

[This,] Amariah tells her sweeties as she follows them to the door, [is a disaster. I think we should bring in all the Bells - maybe all the Jokers - when we get there; this isn't like Shell Bell where she had a stable version of herself to do the steering, we don't have one of this exact instance.]

[Yeah, fuck,] says Kas.

[...They'll cooperate, right? They won't want to go on reading her? She's turning over a lot of the steering power over to them but she's so loopy I don't know why she's doing it.]

[Looking at her makes me want to cry. I don't know how they could feel any different.]

[I was thinking something like - how vampire mates work in Aurum. Those only usually work out and when they don't the keener half can get deluded about it in a hurry. Something like that.]

Isibel opens the door. It leads to a pretty little house, beautifully decorated, listlessly maintained. Something comes over her - her breaths drop into even rhythm and she starts walking with singleminded purpose. Out the door, onto a subtle path, up.

Amariah wraps herself and Path in invisibility before following the elf out of the building.

Kas does likewise. Petaal turns into a least weasel and rides on his shoulder.

He hugs her and nuzzles her hair in his sleep, but doesn't wake up.

Isibel tilts her head and nudges him. "Please wake up," she murmurs.

"My love?" he mumbles sleepily.

Isibel flinches and looks desperately at Amariah.

"What," he says, staring at Amariah. "What under the burning sun are you."

"My name is Isabella Amariah. You can call me Amariah. I'm an alternate version of her. There are nine more of us all from under different burning suns, and more of you, too. I can bring them here, or we can all meet somewhere else, and we will try to help her. She said to consult you." Her aura, in addition to announcing that she's a witch and powerful, is emanating anxious concern (for Isibel) and controlled, wary anger (at the demon; she does not know yet if it's justified or not so it has yet to be slain).

"Help her how? Kill me? She doesn't want anyone to kill me," he says, like this fact is a source of despair.

"I don't know exactly. Magic. I don't know what kind of magic you have working here but we've got a few kinds of our own and we might be able to - wall her off from you somehow," says Amariah, the anger subsiding. "Or - well, anyway, we'll want to all work on this together, the last time one of us got broken she'd also been split into two and one of her was fine so she could manage by herself but there's not an extra of this one, is there?"

"No," he says, cuddling the one of her that there is. "What is your magic? What do you need me to do?"

"I have three kinds. We need you to explain what it is that is going on that hurts her. And tell us what she wants, when we don't know for sure, because goddesses know she can't. So we know how to take it apart and let her out. I'm going to tell the others now," she adds. [Jane.]

[Shell Bell volunteers Atlantis as a meeting place if this cave is unsuitable,] Jane broadcasts to all present a minute later.

"Does Atlantis have more room?" says the demon. "If there are ten of you - and I should wake my love," he flicks his tail against the dragon's side, "if you can keep my Isibel sleeping - there won't be room here."

[There's room in the Atlantis palace for an entire Bellparty including the dragon and then some.]

"She'll stay asleep till I wake her - or in two days, whichever comes first, in case something happens."

"Then - how do we get to Atlantis?" says the demon.

[Me,] says Jane. [Is that what we're doing, then, collecting everybody there?]

When the demon issues no further input, Amariah nods.

Shell Bell is there to meet them when they land.