Grandhugs!

Yseult sits.

So does Beast.

"But plenty of time to get used to it," says Yseult.

"I can take you anywhere you'd like to go. Kemet is nice; my student Luc manages enchanting there. And of course Yseult is old enough to go places without me or her papa, now."

"I am! There are some beautiful places in the world," says Yseult. (She decides not to mention that she has considered visiting the moon. This isn't the time.)

"Very, very far," Beast agrees. "But I like the place they live. It's lovely."

"I think it would be nice if you had another student," says Yseult. "If it was a good student."

"It has to be a good student. Luc is good," says Céleste. "Students have to learn the long way around instead of magicking knowing things because Maman has to know they can be trusted."

"Yes," says Yseult. "It would be no good to anyone if they were a bad student and you had to send them back."

"I like them," she says. "They are very interesting."

"I don't very much," says Céleste. "They are technical and long."

"You may like them more when you are older," says Belle.

"It's very possible," says Yseult. "A few years ago I did not like them as much."

"They are dull," says Céleste firmly. "And badly written. I like stories better."

"Well, then perhaps you will not like them when you grow up."

"Perhaps I will not," agrees Céleste airily.

Yseult smiles back.

"I think it is a fine idea," says Beast, kissing the top of his wife's head.

"Another little sister? I would like that," says Yseult.

"Sister sister sister!"

"I would like a sister," says Yseult. "I wouldn't mind a brother, but I'm not sure I'd know what to do with him." She smiles at Céleste. "I have experience with sisters already."

"And now you want another. That means I am a good sister!" crows Céleste.

"You are a very good sister," says Yseult. "And I love you very much."

"I think we should do it, ma belle."

"Hyacinthe," suggests the Beast. "Hyacinthe Avril Cygne."

"Pretty!" opines Céleste.

"I like it," laughs Belle.

"Me too," says Yseult.

"Saves trouble that way," says Beast.

"I suppose," laughs Renée.

Belle kisses her husband on the cheek.

"Mushyyyy," accuses Céleste.

"Yes we are," says Beast, and he kisses Belle back.

"It is cute," declares Yseult.

"I am so glad you think so," says Belle to her eldest, amused.

She laughs.

And Beast endeavours to make another rosebud with her.

She is little! And quiet and calm and thoughtful, for the most part, even as a baby. She gets even quieter and thoughtfuller as she grows up.

"What are you thinking about?" Céleste asks her one day.

"Mice," says Hyacinthe. "They are small and fuzzy."

"Yes. And Rainier eats them sometimes."

"Then I should not have one as a pet," says Hyacinthe. "Unless it was a magic uneatable mouse."

"I can train him not to eat your mouse, if you get a mouse. You could get a mouse with wings!" suggests Céleste.

"What would a mouse do with wings?" wonders Hyacinthe. "I think they might get in the way of its mousiness."

"It would fly with them! There are alts of us who have wings," says Céleste. "They fly with them. They have them because their alt of Maman has wings."

"People with wings is okay," says Hyacinthe. "I am not sure about mice with wings."

"Why? It'd be cute!"

"What if the mouse did not like its wings? Then it would not be cute," she says. "It would be sad."

"Why wouldn't it like them? Maman could make a pet mouse with wings from scratch like Rainier, she wouldn't have to give them to a mouse that didn't want them."

"I don't know," says Hyacinthe. "But I would worry about the mouse."

"Awww," says Céleste, and she hugs her.

Hyacinthe hugs back.

"Do you want a pet mouse without any wings?"

"I'm not sure," she says. "I will think about it some more."

Céleste nods. "D'you want to go fly around?"

"I don't think so. I will stay here and think about mice."

"Okay," says Céleste, and she launches herself out of a pretty stained-glass window that opens at her approach, falls until the last minute, and then zooms off into the sky.

Belle wanders by not long after, eating a pear. "Hello, Hyacinthe. How are you?"

"Do you think a mouse with wings would be happy? I think they might get in the way," she says.

"I don't think they would get in the way for a well-designed winged mouse."

"How would you design a good one?"

"I would think about how mice are shaped, and how wings work. I already did some of the thinking about how wings work when I made Rainier for Céleste."

"Could you design a good winged mouse, and show me, but not make an alive one yet?"

"Of course. What color would you like your not-alive-yet winged mouse?"

"Grey," says Hyacinthe.

"All over?"

She nods.

"All right." Belle thinks about mice, and spends a pentagon, and eventually she has the requisite skeleton alterations picked out. She conjures up an illusion of a dove-grey mouse with a twelve-inch feathery wingspan.

"Pretty," says Hyacinthe.

Hyacinthe smiles.

Belle dismisses it. "You may have one if you like, although you would need to look after it as Céleste does with Rainier."

"How do you look after a mouse with wings?"

"You would need to feed it - mice can eat most anything and so could one with wings - and make sure it had water and exercise. I would make it so it would be okay if it got lost - in case one day you don't want it anymore and you set it loose - but if you do lose it, you won't have it."

"How do I not lose it?"

"You could put a little leash on it, or train it to come when you call it, or keep it in a cage most of the time."

Hyacinthe thinks about this.

"Rainier comes when Céleste calls him and he's also much larger than a mouse, so he would be harder to lose."

"A mouse with wings shouldn't be in a cage," she says. "And I don't think a leash would be very nice either. But I don't know how to make a mouse come when I call it."

"I could enchant it that way. If you want to train it, then you will need to do something else in the meantime while it is still being trained."

"I will think about it," Hyacinthe decides.

"All right." Belle pets her hair. "Anything else on your mind apart from winged mice?"

Hyacinthe shakes her head and hugs her Maman.

Hugs!

"I love you too, Hyacinthe."

And here are eight of her maman.

One double-takes at her.

"Hello, mamans!" says Hyacinthe.

"Hi, um, alt of Ariel," says Glass, who hasn't seen Ariel in person but is guessing from attractors.

"That's an Ariel? Aww," says Tab.

"Rose's?" says Juliet, inspecting Hyacinthe's world signature via her torchabling power.

"My maman is Belle Cygne and I am Hyacinthe Avril Cygne," says Hyacinthe. "Who are you, besides more mamans?"

"We are," says Aurora, and she points with every name, "Aurora, Juliet, Shell Bell, Tab - she's new, you won't have heard of her - Stella, Golden, Pattern - that's Pattern's boyfriend Ripper - and Glass. We're collecting all of us to sync up the worlds again. Wanna take us home with you?"

Pattern says, "We're together, like your parents, except we aren't married."

"Oh," says Hyacinthe. She nods. "Okay. Would you like to see Maman now?"

"Yes, please."

She turns around back the way she came, and opens the door, and leads many mamans (and one boyfriend) through it.

[Rose!] calls Shell Bell, with Hyacinthe and the other two rosebuds and Beast and all the Bells and Ripper conferenced in. [We have an alternative timesyncing solution and then we're going to see if we can fetch the welcome committee.]

[Oh! Hello, welcome!]

[I found many mamans,] Hyacinthe contributes. [They were in a place. Now they are here. One of them has a boyfriend.]

[A boyfriend?] says Beast.

[I was out for sixteen years,] says Pattern. [It happens. Beast, Ripper; Ripper, Beast.]

[And a new Bell. I am novel and exciting and come bearing the alternative timesyncing solution. I'll just stick it in your Janepoint if you don't mind.]

[Yes, please.]

[Hi, Beast,] says Ripper. [I've heard about you.]

[Have you,] says Beast. [Pattern, may I borrow your boyfriend please? I will return him in good condition.]

[Ripper, you want to hang out here with Beast or come with us to Samaria? Shell Bell can swing by to pick you up on our way home.]

[Well, that depends on what, exactly, got the welcoming committee stuck. But certainly I will if I can.]

[Eh, it's not like I'll be much use if you run into something nasty out there.] He gives Pattern a hug and a chocolate-flavoured kiss. "Good luck," he murmurs.

Meanwhile, Tab has finished installing the Kersible.

Pattern kisses her boyfriend and hugs him tight. "Have fun," she murmurs back, "we'll be back in just a little while, only Samaria and New Bell's World left to go."

"Awww."

Juliet starts laughing again.

Rose appears, having bidden her husband and elder daughters goodbye. She kisses Hyacinthe on the forehead. "Shall we?"

Shell Bell opens the door again.

Ripper teleports to Beast.

"Bye, mamans!" says Hyacinthe, waving.

"Goodbye, Hyacinthe."