"If you say so," says Sherial, tapping her tail idly against the ground with a considerable thump. "Elasirae must be off somewhere. I'm less sure what to do about Sidanar and Arianna. Maybe Tianthonet will think of something; she knows them better."

Isibel quickly checks the names against her pastwatching: Sidanar is the Darcy, Arianna the Anna. "Perhaps."

"I'm going to guess that Amariah is one of your alts," Sherial adds. "That thing you do is magnificently useful, Elspeth."

"Thanks!"

"Amariah is one of my alts, yes. There are sixteen of us in total."

"That's a lot," says Sherial. "You can tell me more things about them while we wait for the others if you want."

Isibel laughs softly. "I can - I also do not mind being asked questions, which helps with interacting with my alts, none of whom are elves. They are mostly humans, although Amariah and Angela and Golden would not call themselves so."

"What would they call themselves instead?"

"Amariah is a witch, Angela an angel, and Golden a vampire. Whether these things are species in their own right is an ambiguous matter, as all three sorts of people are normally interfertile only with humans."

"That's interesting," says Sherial. "Are there any apart from you who aren't human or not-quite-human like that?"

"Not of my own template - unless one counts a newly located one's ability to turn into a swan and back, but it was a magically acquired power, not an intrinsic feature."

"And if she's human the rest of the time, that still counts," says Sherial. "None of my alts are dragons, right? Maybe this world is just strange. Are most people here different species than everyone else of them?"

"None of your alts are dragons. Most worlds do not have dragons; there is one other world that has, but they are very different, and we do not know any of them to be templates of any kind. Humans are overwhelmingly common for all of the templates we have found, with exceptions like you and me, here and there. It is the same with elves. Some templates here that I have just discovered," (this description is intended to include Lycaelon, who she only recently discovered to be a template, though it was years ago she discovered him at all) "are human, like their alts, but I, the five of you, my beloveds, and another recently-discovered template who is an elf do not match."

"Very interesting," says Sherial. "I want to meet my alts and see their worlds!"

"I can invite the other Sherlocks here right now, if you wish, but they will all be at the party in a few days either way. Visiting their worlds would be somewhat more problematic, as you would be highly conspicuous, but perhaps you can work that out with them."

"I'm not that conspicuous," she says. "For a dragon I'm positively stealthy. But I guess in a world that doesn't have dragons, that wouldn't be much help."

"Indeed it would not. You would need to be invisible, avoid leaving footprints or making inexplicable sound - I suppose you could change shape if desired."

"I don't desire to change shape," she says, arching her glittery grey neck.

"Then you will find your travel accordingly constrained. There are a few worlds where magic and so on are generally known, and there you could appear undisguised and receive only peculiar looks."

"I wouldn't mind being imperceptible," she says thoughtfully.

"That is also possible."

"Which worlds are the ones where magic is known? What's it like where it isn't?"

"There are as many ways for magic to be known or hidden as there are worlds. For example, on Angela's world Samaria, only a handful of people know that magic of any kind exists at all. The world has none of its own, and she has not told more than a few family members and friends about the sort she has brought in from elsewhere. In Glass's world Chronicle - this is the only other world with elves or dragons - there is no particular secret about magic existing; the local sort is abundant and varied and Glass has no reason to be secretive about the exotic varieties. In Pattern's world Origin there is no native magic, but she has been using foreign kinds for more than a decade and a half. While most people do not know how it works or where it comes from, and she might not like to explain you if you asked to visit because people would think she had made you instead of realizing that you could have come from somewhere else, she performs useful workings openly. In Rêverie, enchanting - what I have mostly done, if you have heard much of how I spend my time - is the native sort of magic, but few people knew about it until my alt there, Rose, began using it on a grand scale; other kinds are not common knowledge, but nor are they secret, and so you would be puzzling but not alarming to a typical resident."

"Elasirae will want to visit some of these worlds," Sherial predicts. "And learn all about their magics. He'd probably even change his shape for it."

"I am not surprised."