Cam is over here, being idly telekinetic with one of the temporarily harmless fire-flowers. He was briefly talking to Carinna but then she scampered off.

Now there is a Sherlock watching him.

"...Hullo, Steel. What's up?"

"Everyone seems to ask me that. My lurking abilities must be deteriorating."

"If you're trying to sneak up on people you'll have to try a less paranoid template with less magic."

"I sense a challenge."

Cam laughs. "Well, I can tell you it won't work on Aurora if she's got her aura out, and not on Golden with her super-senses, and probably not on Sarion either, although if she determines that you're trying not to be noticed she might politely ignore you. Anybell else it'll depend on their attention and what powers they're deploying right then. And if you like hide-and-seek where one or more parties are egregiously cheating, try Pattern, she has a stealth aura feature."

"It is charming," says Sherlock, "how you assume I will not also cheat."

"I did say one or more. I would love to see how what you have stacks up against Pattern's ninja aura."

"Should I suggest it to her, do you think?"

"Why not?"

Smiling slightly, she follows the forest to wherever Pattern might have got to.

Pattern might have gotten to over here, but she's sure not obvious.

"I perceive that a game of hide-and-seek will not be necessary to test this particular interaction," says Sherlock, looking directly at the place that Pattern is.

"Pattern?" Cam asks. "Why are you ninjaing right now?"

Pattern un-ninjas. "Felt like it," she says. "Wasn't talking to anybody, wanted a moment to think but didn't want to go home for it. What's up?"

"Cam wondered if I would be able to find you while you were engaging in stealth. It seems I can."

"How'd you do it?"

"The royal family of the Enchanted Forest has a connection to the forest that lets us do various useful things. Only the reigning monarch has full access, but heirs and descendants can manage little tricks. Mine is finding. Finding people, finding objects, finding my way, finding a shortcut."

"Oh. So you knew where I was, but you couldn't directly detect me?"

"That is an accurate summary."

"Now we know how that works. I guess the forest doesn't count as something with perception that my aura can refuse to permit."

"That is one possibility."

"You have another hypothesis?"

"It is also possible that the forest is better at knowing what is in it than you are at telling it not to."

"Hey forest," says Cam experimentally in the Speech.

"What are you doing?" says Steel. This is the only response.

"Seeing if the forest'll talk to me. Either it's not a coherent entity by itself and I'd have to address an individual tree, or it is feeling unfriendly, or stuff on this world doesn't talk even as much as stuff on other non-Syntropy worlds tends to." He turns to the nearest tree. "Hey, tree."

"The forest is not traditionally friendly towards non-residents," says Steel. The tree says nothing.

"Hey, tree and/or forest, do you want to talk to Princess Sherlock, I can translate for you," offers Cam.

"Nope. I want to teleport briefly to someplace that isn't this forest and talk to a rock or something to see if it's the forest or the world, can you suggest a destination?"

"The former dragonsbane cultivation site, in the Mountains of Morning."

"Hi!" says the pebble. "I'm a pebble."

"May I see it?" asks Steel, holding out her hand.

Cam hands over the pebble.

Sherlock accepts and studies the pebble.

"Uh, on Syntropy, everything talks, trees and stars are as smart as humans and it varies on down from there, stuff wizards talk to gets smarter. On other worlds I've checked out, stuff talks, but nothing is smarter than grass - which is to say incredibly stupid."

"This seems to be an ordinary pebble," says Sherlock. "What did it say?"

"It said, 'hi, I'm a pebble', it will not be helping your children with their geography lessons anytime soon."

She laughs.

"The Speech is useful even if you aren't a wizard. I haven't been able to make any other Bells wizards, but I think that might be just because they're too old. Aegis is youngest, at fifteen, and even fourteen is pushing it - I was fourteen when I got wizarded up and that's much older than typical. I might be able to wizard the miscellaneous Bellspawn except Dominique, but I don't know if that would get Iggy's attention between worlds, so it'd require thinking about."

"Iggy?"

"It's not its real name, but when I was fourteen it pretended to be a rock named Iggy to talk to me. It's sort of an - evil god? It's a Power. And it's really unclear how powerful the Powers are, like, I'd be surprised but not astounded if they could reach across worlds with something like an offworld wizard to get their attention. And every time a new wizard comes to be, it tries to kill them. Jellybean and Matilda saved my life."

"Do not make my children into wizards," Steel requests.

"Not on the agenda," agrees Cam. "Although whether you expect Powers to make attempts on their lives or not you probably want them all torchable."

"Yes."

"Iggy doesn't usually try very hard - either that or it's got seriously limited resources - and it doesn't try more than once. I have a student, it sent a rabid dog after him, when that was taken care of nothing else happened. And if it's noticed anything I've been doing since pealing and minting it's been quiet about it. I can't really figure it out."

"Forces beyond our control do not necessarily have to act in comprehensible ways."

"My long-term plans don't include Iggy continuing to operate beyond my control."

"Especially since Syntropy's not Downsideable," agrees Pattern.

"I see."

"Neither is Alethia. I think Amariah's almost ready to get together a sub-peal and attack that problem."

"I have not yet spoken to Amariah."

"She's cool. Don't touch her owl."

"Noted."

"Her aura reminds anyone who forgets, but she doesn't always remember to have it out, she's not fully public about stuff at home."

Steel nods. She seems disinterested in asking why she should not touch the owl.

"I saw her over there with Sarion," Pattern says, pointing.

"I will go over there," says Steel. "Thank you."

Amariah is over there! She has remembered to put her aura out; she is witchy and Path is Don't Touch Me.

Sarion is with her!

Steel approaches and observes.

"I See you," Sarion says to her.

"It is evident that you do. I see you also," says Steel, mildly amused.

"Elf greeting," laughs Amariah. "Hi."

"Hello."

"Elves also don't ask questions. Sarion in particular isn't fazed about getting asked things, but if it seems like she's hinting about something she probably is."

"I believe I have typically been found comprehensible to the sort of people who choose to keep company with Bells."

"That is an interesting restriction," says Steel.

"It is not impossible for elves to ask questions. We merely consider it impolite. Demanding."

"When we went to Thilanushinyel we all had tea with another elf and Sarion had to translate. It was funny."

"I can imagine that it was."