"Quite. Especially since the star only lasts about a week, did you hear that story?"

"I didn't!" she says. "What happened?"

"Minus - Juliet's Sherlock, from Sunshine - came over for a visit, and while he was here Jane went down for the first time. After he'd been here about a week he woke up in the middle of the night with a genet. She went by Subtrahend, till I told him what the canonical Sherlock Holmes's daemon was called - didn't like Stephirashal entire but she took Steph. They weren't thrilled, though, either one."

"Why not?"

"Well, she wasn't on purpose, and Sherlocks have some mixed feelings about existing, so existing more was an unpleasant surprise."

"Oh. Poor Minus. Are they okay now?"

"I don't have up-to-date information," confesses Isabella. "All kinds of things could've changed since I last saw him, I don't even know how long it was in Sunshine."

"Well - I met Soph, and she said somebody from her world got rid of their daemon and then got her back later. But I didn't ask her any questions about it. I'm pretty sure it was the same person, though."

"That would be him, yes, nobody else from Sunshine ever had one in the first place." Isabella shudders slightly.

"Yeah. People with no daemons are only slightly unsettling, but - " She shakes her head.

"It took me some getting used to. The first time I walked into Milliways I called everyone a zombie, for a while."

"I hardly notice most of the time, and then something reminds me and it's weird all over again. But I'm getting used to it."

"Steph didn't like it that it made me more comfortable around Sherlock when she existed."

"...I don't get it," says Helen. "Why?"

"It was a reason to continue existing, with which she had issues."

"Very confusing, yes. If she's stopped and then started again that's promising."

"I guess. But she still - stoppped." Helen shivers.

Isabella nods. "I suppose it must have seemed like a reasonable option to them at the time."

"I can't see how."

"No, me either, but we're the odd ones out, no one else has daemons as a fact of life."

"Yeah," she sighs. "It's so - peculiar."

"Yep. Very much so. Some of my alts and some of your dad's have acquired daemons but I don't think they think of them in quite the same way as Alethia natives with them do."

"What other way is there?"

"It's hard to characterize. Most of what makes me think this is that they're a lot more cavalier about tucking them away. I don't remember Kas ever doing it with Petaal at all, and I only do it when it's crowded or something. Also, Cam's daemon is also his magical notebook, so there's that."