"So yeah," Amariah says to Libby, "I'm accumulating respect as a spell innovator, which doesn't accrue me any political power, not even the way witches do it, but which does get me attention and a sort of respectful wariness that I think will serve me well. I've been in contact with all the queens, now, and that's what I was waiting for before investigating the afterlife; I'm going to grill the alethiometer about what I'll need and what will happen and then collect some help and go for it."

"Best of luck," says Libby. "Let me know if I can help."

"Thanks!"

Glass approaches. "Hi, Amariah, hi, Libby. Amariah, you were one of the founding Belltower members?"

"Yeah, me and Shell Bell set it up. Why?"

"Well, I just wrote in a profile, but I think the information it asks for was better suited to the times before we could freely travel and share magic," says Glass. "It might be time to revise it."

"Ooh," says Libby. "Profiles."

"Sounds like a plan to me," says Amariah. "Do you think we need the whole peal for making revisions?"

"We should probably at least invite everyone, although I don't suppose they'll all drop what they're doing, I think Cam may be in a pile of Tonies at the moment based on where I last saw him."

Libby laughs.

Glass invites Bells. A few show up - Shell Bell and Angela and Rose - and the others all pass along their confidence that their alts will come up with something satisfactory.

Amariah reads through Glass's original profile, first. "I like the idea of including aura. Maybe since we turn out to vary in sexuality more than we thought we should have a field for that, too, and optionally throw in how interested we are in, say, being dragged into a heap of Tonies."

Glass giggles. "And there are now four of us with children, that belongs in here too."

"And something about how readily visitable our worlds are. Mine is safe but magic isn't generally known, for example."

"Coin color. Since it seems to track mental opacity so closely, in particular."

"And this won't be part of the profile but as long as we're talking about how to get new Bells slotted comfortably into the peal there should be some sort of standard checklist. Minting and the safety lecture; enchanting and the skill and the cautions about that; Janegem and an introduction to her."

"And I'll be happy to pop briefly into newly found worlds as long as they're safe, and check out the character of the place. I've seen everywhere but Alethia now, and I'm happy to go check Alethia too if someone will spot me a star."

"What kind of character assessment do you do on a world?" wonders Libby.

"It apparently falls under my metacausality-sensing aura feature," says Glass. "I can tell things about templates, and apparently entire worlds count. This one is by far the nicest; Aegis put it as 'made of cotton candy'. Sunshine is particularly appalling."

"I wonder if the worlds should get profiles too," she muses.

"Maybe, but I get very indistinct senses, and I don't think Cam can talk to the worlds themselves for us. I might get better at reading what I sense over time and then I could potentially generate enough information that it doesn't make sense to just fold it into the Bell profiles."

"I was thinking that world profiles would run more along the lines of - a name, your impression, a list of templates known to be present, important safety information, details about technology and magic levels... they wouldn't only be useful for worlds containing Bells."

"If some other people want to invite me to have a look at their worlds, I'll be happy to," says Glass. "But we're talking about the Bellbook, not a hypothetical Worldbook."

"I'll design the Worldbook later, then."

"Cool, let me know where I need to show up and what format you want my results in when you've got that. Anyway. And to avoid confusions like the one Aegis had about my mother-in-law being the queen, maybe an entry for tentative expected approach - or past approach, for when you all update your old profiles."

"And perhaps we no longer need an entry for people with keys to the Belltower, with Jane operating it at her informed discretion. Although literal keys should probably still be kept on hand in case something happens to her again."

Libby thinks this template is very reasonable!

Glass inaugurates it.

Angela follows.

Amariah takes the book next.

Shell Bell follows suit.

Rose is the last of the committee to add something.

"Very tidy," says Libby. "Who wants to work with me on the Worldbook?"

"I will, if you like. Do you anticipate needing much help?"

"It's always nice to get a second opinion on something like this."

"Okay then. What are your thoughts?"

"Well, for one thing, has anyone else noticed that the Sunny worlds seem to be twins where everyone else is at most cousins? I wonder if we should be dividing up worlds by family."

"Ooh." Glass closes her eyes, thinking. "I should visit the other Sunny worlds, real quick, and see if I can detect that and if there's anything else like it."

"Go for it," says Libby.

"Interesting. So a 'worldfamily' entry might be a little premature, but I think I'll put one down anyway in case we find more Sunny worlds and run out of cute sun-related things to name them after. Apart from that... a list of common intelligent species would be good, so we have some standardization for species names besides the ones that Bells happen to be. I haven't heard anyone coming up with a term for Aianon's species other than 'demon', for example, and that's also the generic term for nonhumans in the Sunny worlds. And there's some species overlap between this world and Thilanushinyel, as evinced by the two completely different types of dragons chatting over there."

Glass nods. "I suspect Aianon's busy - I'll ask Sarion -" Presently she has a reply. "Thilanushinyel demons are also called 'Endarkened', is that taken?"

"Nope. See, this is the kind of thing that would go in a Worldbook."

"I can ask Kexan what he'd like to call Chronicle dragons, but he'll probably lob the question to his grandmother; she's the king."

"As long as someone comes up with something at some point."

Glass nods. "And we've also got unicorns here that aren't like the one I saw at this party, and elves. And dwarves and giants and all kinds of things, I'm not even sure I know them all, there could easily be some I haven't heard of from sufficiently faraway places."

"I'm not that worried about listing every single species as long as we've got distinct terms for all the ones that interact with the peal. Ooh, and there should be an entry for afterlife situation," she adds.

"Syntropy and Alethia," nods Glass. "And maybe distinguish between worlds that were already attached to Downside and will have wakeful people there who Jane didn't wake, versus ones that were added later and will have only sleeping people or ones we've personally attended to."

"Good point," says Libby. "All right. Can you think of anything else?"

"Not off the top of my head."

Name: Eos

Worldfamily, if applicable: N/A

Primary inhabited planet(s): Earth, Mars

Known intelligent species: Humans

Technology/magic situation: Standard technology level for early 21st century Earth; one kind of transferable magic - minting/wishcoins - and one kind of innate per-person magic - ingots, which are people with single non-duplicated magical powers.

Afterlife situation: Downside world number 74, introduced to Downside post-pealing

Safety rating and notes for visitors: Magic is nonsecret to the population of Earth but individuals may be wary.

Glass's commentary: --

List of inhabiting templates: Bell, Stella; Libby, Libby; Joker, Alice; Chainsaw, Sandy; Anna, Anna. All humans, all mints. Sandy, Alice, and Stella are also ingots.

"It does have that resemblance to Aurum. They're not as close as any two Sunny worlds, but it's not nothing."

"Okay," she says, and she puts 'Eos-Aurum' under Worldfamily. "Pending a better name. Maybe we'll come up with one if we find another cousin."

Glass nods. "It's not an unusually nice or unusually mean world. It's exploitable - more than here; Chronicle is nice but doesn't natively lend itself to being cracked open and comprehended, I think, and Eos is fine with that. Most of the Earths I looked at seemed more or less exploitable in this way. It feels more - isolated than some of them. Like - it has features in common with Aurum, but not on the same layer as the Sunnyworlds. On the layer that Sunnyworlds are - using - for resemblance, Eos floats around completely alone and nowhere else I looked at does - though some of them do it differently."

"Interesting," says Libby. She copies this down.

"Huh. Maybe a 'worldfamily' description isn't going to cut it," says Libby. "It'll do for now, I guess."

"And Wellspring is distantly related to Sunnyworlds on a different layer."

"I wonder what the family tree would look like."

"I have no idea!"

She laughs.

"Milliways does the complete opposite of the Eos-floating thing. I'd say Downside does too, but it doesn't even compare to Milliways."

"That seems logical."

"I should really name all these layers, but they don't come in a sensible order to allow for numbering, and I have so little idea what any of them mean."

"Wait on it," Libby suggests. "When you have a better idea of what they mean, you'll have a better idea of how to name them."

Glass nods.

"I'll ask my alts to profile their worlds," says Libby, and she conjures a proper Worldbook containing the Eos entry. It has a planet on the cover, and because Libby has a sense of humour, the planet on the cover is rotating at roughly Earthlike speeds.

Aegis swings by to add a new profile.

"Glass, you wanna comment on Aurum? And Helios and Sunshine, but Granny's the one who's currently writing."

"Aurum's not as mean as Sunnyworlds, but it's still pretty mean - but perfectly exploitable. It's related to Eos, like I said. I think it might have some kind of special relationship to the Bell template but I don't have any more detail."

Pattern puts in a profile too.

Name: Aurum

Worldfamily, if applicable: Eos-Aurum

Primary inhabited planet(s): Earth

Known intelligent species: humans; vampires, "diamond" variety; werewolves, Quileute variety.

Technology/magic situation: Mid-twenty-first-century Earth. Apart from special characteristics of aforementioned species (pamphlets available), there is a kind of innate non-transferable per-person magic called witchcraft, where witches are people with single non-duplicated magical powers.

Afterlife situation: Downside world number 61, connected since before pealing

Safety rating and notes for visitors: Someone might fall magically and irrevocably in love with you! And magic is not fully known to the population at large. Consult the local precog, name of Alice, before meeting anyone else.

Glass's commentary: "Aurum's not as mean as Sunnyworlds, but it's still pretty mean - but perfectly exploitable. It's related to Eos, like I said. I think it might have some kind of special relationship to the Bell template but I don't have any more detail."

List of inhabiting templates: Bell, Golden, vampire; Libby, Granny, human; Joker, Joker, human, immigrated from Origin; Anna, Eights, human, died and moved to Downside; Jasper, Jazz, vampire.

Juliet reprofiles herself, incidentally providing an excuse for Glass to put her Sunnyworld commentary into words.

Name: Helios

Worldfamily, if applicable: Sunny

Primary inhabited planet(s): Earth

Known intelligent species: humans; vampires, "sunshine" variety; a staggeringly extensive list of nonhuman species collectively referred to as "demons".

Technology/magic situation: Early twenty-first-century Earth, with aforementioned demons and a flexible but occasionally hostile magic system common to the Sunny worlds.

Afterlife situation: Downside world number 78, introduced to Downside post-pealing

Safety rating and notes for visitors: Most nonhuman species consider humans food. Magic is not generally known among humans. Safe for cautious visits, but not a good tourist destination. Don't turn into a local vampire; the transition comes with unpredictable personality changes and a frequent hobby of recently turned Sunshine vampires is killing all their pre-transition friends.

Glass's commentary: "This place is mean as anything, all the worlds in the family are. The Sunnyworlds are distantly related to Wellspring on one layer and to Yggdrasil on another."

List of inhabiting templates: Libby, Slipstick, human, moved to Origin; Tony, Sapphire, human; Sherlock, Cloud, human.

"I commented on Origin for Pattern, already," says Glass.

Cam wanders by and puts down a profile.

Name: Sunshine

Worldfamily, if applicable: Sunny

Primary inhabited planet(s): Earth

Known intelligent species: humans; vampires, "sunshine" variety; a staggeringly extensive list of nonhuman species collectively referred to as "demons".

Technology/magic situation: Early twenty-first-century Earth, with aforementioned demons and a flexible but occasionally hostile magic system common to the Sunny worlds.

Afterlife situation: Downside world number 29, connected since before pealing

Safety rating and notes for visitors: Most nonhuman species consider humans food. Magic is not generally known among humans. Safe for cautious visits, but not a good tourist destination. Don't turn into a local vampire; the transition comes with unpredictable personality changes and a frequent hobby of recently turned Sunshine vampires is killing all their pre-transition friends.

Glass's commentary: "This place is mean as anything, all the worlds in the family are. The Sunnyworlds are distantly related to Wellspring on one layer and to Yggdrasil on another, but Sunshine in particular is more weakly connected to Yggdrasil than the others."

List of inhabiting templates: Bell, Juliet, human, ex-Slayer; Libby, James, human, Slayer (a Slayer is a unique person with combat-related superpowers); Virginia, Virginia, human; Sherlock, Minus, vampire, with soul (important distinction); Tony, Red, human.

Name: Origin

Worldfamily, if applicable: contains a Gotham

Primary inhabited planet(s): Earth, Saturn

Known intelligent species: Humans

Technology/magic situation: Early twenty-first-century Earth; no native magic, but Saturn is heavily enchanted thanks to the local Bell

Afterlife situation: Downside world number 70, connected since before pealing

Safety rating and notes for visitors: Magic is nonsecret but not formally acknowledged; no special hazards except that Gotham is an especially unfriendly city. Please do not disturb the prison colony on Ganymede.

Glass's commentary: "Slightly mean, but without much leverage behind it. I think the Gotham is related to that."

List of inhabiting templates: Bell, Pattern, human; Joker, Queenie, immigrated from Downside, originally from world #48; Joker, Ghosty, human-ish, immigrated from #81; Joker, Joker, human, moved to Aurum; Libby, Slipstick, immigrated from Helios.

Golden swings by to profile herself.

"Well, I can do Chronicle, if you like."

"Go for it!"

"Perfect," says Libby. "Hmm, I should edit Aurum's entry to add the Jokerling. And Golden's warning about Addy." She does that.

Stella's turn.

(Libby laughs at the nemesis part.)

"I'm glad you're not my nemesis," comments Stella.

"Me too!"

"This sounds like an amusing story."

"It is!" says Libby. "Do you want to tell it, Stella, or should I?"

"You go ahead," laughs Stella.

"Short version: Stella came to my attention when there were very, very few mints around and I knew all the rest of them. I didn't really know what to make of her. She didn't appreciate the way I tried to find out. So we were having a very tense cup of coffee together when I stumbled on Milliways and started talking to Elspeth, who was delighted to tell me all about her mother the magical vampire empress. And then I went home and handed Stella the star secret."

Glass laughs. "So there's a long history of people learning about one Bell and deciding to trust another."

"It wasn't that long ago for me, but yeah."

"You've got a pretty good template going on there."

"We rock."

"I'm pretty pleased with us. Although I think Aegis may have upset my mother-in-law and definitely irritated my Sherlock."

"What'd she do?"

Sarion writes a profile.

"Assumed that I was plotting usurpment."

"Ouch."

"Yes. And I'm not. I expect it'll smooth over. Why did you make the worldbook planet turn like that?" she inquires.

"Because it amused me," says Libby. "It's a planet. Planets rotate."

"What planet is it meant to be?"

"None in particular. It has about Earth's size and rotation speed but an unrelated geography."

"Earth's size?" asks Glass archly.

Aurora writes stuff.

"Scaled appropriately, yes."

"What does it mean for something to be Earth's size, scaled appropriately? Isn't it just... smaller than Earth?"

"If it were a picture of Earth, wouldn't you say it was appropriate to say it was a picture of a planet with Earth's size and rotation speed?"

"Uh, I wouldn't say it that way, any more than I would bother to mention that a photo of me is a photo of someone who is my size. And this planet isn't a real planet somewhere, right? Maybe you're cashing out rotation speed as a miles per hour thing instead of a revolutions per day thing...?"

"It's an imaginary planet, but size is still an attribute planets have, even when they don't physically exist. I'm not an artist; I didn't imagine this picture and then decide it should display planetary rotation. I imagined a set of characteristics for a planet, and then I had the magic generate an appropriate image. If I'd imagined a planet the literal size of the picture on the cover of this book, it would be a lump of rock, or maybe a neutron star."

"Okay," shrugs Aurora. "Well, that's my profile - nice revisions, Glass." And she wanders off.