Eee, hugs! Bella is pleased. And huggable.

"Have you met many?" asks Bella archly.

"Nope!"

"That only makes sense. We are rather uncommon."

"It was a magician that did the first spell to keep wizards' greasy paws off our magic," she offers. "Way back before Mom was even born."

"Yeah, I've read about Telemain. Good role model, kind of lousy writer, too fond of his jargon - I understand it now but it was kind of intimidating when I was just starting out."

"Yeah, I remember Dad used to complain about him all the time."

Bella laughs. "The jargon problem, or something else? Were they contemporaries at all?"

"They might've been?" she hazards. "Mostly it was the jargon. He complained about the spell structure on the anti-wizard thing, too, but it was the admiring kind of complaining."

"There's an admiring kind of complaint?"

"Oh, yes," says Sherlock.

"Like what?"

"I cannot give you examples," she says. "It was mostly in the delivery."

"You had to know him."

"Fair enough. I had just moved in when he passed away - it was a fairly miserable welcome, the forest grieving all around me - I'm sure it was worse for you. I'm sorry."

"What brought you here?"

"There's really no better place to be a magician," Bella says, brightening. "I think there's something like a dozen witches in the whole of Linderwall - no permanent wizard residence - there's Little Elfholts in two of the big cities but it's nothing like having a native elf population - there's just not as much to look at, magic-wise."

"That," says Tony, "is very true."

"And I do like to be busy."

"What are you currently busy with?"

"There's the ongoing immortality project, and on the shorter-term front I'm deconstructing some unicorn magic, trying to convince Kexan to introduce me to his grandmother, setting up a test garden to see which of several spells is better at repelling gnomes and other pests, and - now - I'm going to have lots of notes on the Skyvault and maybe the sword to pore over."

"What exactly are you doing to unicorn magic? And who is Kexan's grandmother?"

"Kexan's grandmother is the King of the Dragons. I want to convince her to let me have a look at the King's Crystal. I don't expect to be allowed to touch it or do anything to it, but I give myself even odds on being allowed to look, possibly if I spend a month in indentured servitude to her first or something. So far Kexan's on the fence about it."

"Good luck," snorts Tony. "Kazul's an old friend of the family, and I wouldn't ask her for a look at the Crystal."