This post's authors have general content warnings that might apply to the current post.
View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
Bella's house gets done, and she fills it up with things. She experiments with magic, and theorizes when she has more data to work with; when she runs out of her steadily increasing mana supply for a day she studies Quenya. One morning she sits bolt upright in bed, realizes she has not seen a single wheel since she got here, and runs off to Mahtan to explain the concept, which is, it turns out, new.
When Fëanáro is feeling sociable she hangs out with him. He finishes his novel. (In it, the school turns him over to social workers and adopt him out, he escapes his foster family, he encounters a dragon and talks his way past it with stories about Arda, he studies wizardry and is unreasonably effective at it, when the dragon opens a portal to Arda he sneaks through too and the Valar slay the dragon, he fixes his mother with magic, and then he masters planar travel himself and conquers Bella's plane.) He finishes his typewriter, too; Bella's of the opinion that it would have been easier if he made vowels separate instead of consonant-hats, but it works okay like so. She acquires one when there is more than one, and learns to type, because crystal balls are a long time coming.
She has made some progress, though. She finds the common thread in dud combinations that produced an aura, and successfully decomposes all her original spells into pieces and begins to make new combinations. Most of these are trivial like the increased character limit arcane mark. Reverse-engineering her undead-damaging spell, though, gets her (small) arcane healing well in advance of when she was expecting to have that down. So anybody who lives on her block and cuts themselves cooking breakfast can knock on her door - or that of anybody who's getting the spells as she turns them out - and get that seen to without bothering a Maia.
Once a month she sees Miriel. Bella doesn't have any ideas that land any better than "forget you forgot something". But forgetting the contents of that foolish, foolish oath is at least a holding pattern that lets Miriel pretty much live her life, so, therapeutic success? ...Bella makes sure to remind Fëanáro that he is very adorable and lovable and adored and loved.
subtly_artistic
subtly_artistic
"I actually suggested bringing you along to talk to Manwë, but Rúmil pointed out that it might make it hard to socialize or something, being in Valinor without the time-slidey. So I'll test it out for like a few weeks and see if it makes me antisocial but yeah, I should be able to cast it on you just fine."
subtly_artistic
"Yes, but you're very good at accomplishing things already and you might lose more than you gain if there's an intense effect."
subtly_artistic
"I am not going to promise to make a tradeoff I don't know the magnitude of for you."
"I'm older than you. If one year in our world is ten in yours I am seventy years older than you and what have I accomplished? Nothing!"
subtly_artistic
"You have accomplished several things but believe me I understand the frustration and if the spell doesn't make everything horrible for some reason I will totally cast it on you."
subtly_artistic
"I will. By local standards of soon."
And she gives him a big squishy hug.
And she goes and asks Olórin if he wants to come along for magical research assistance.
And she gives him a big squishy hug.
And she goes and asks Olórin if he wants to come along for magical research assistance.
He likes the idea and wants her to finish her work quickly, but shouldn't leave Lórien on so little notice and rather enjoys the light of Valinor.
subtly_artistic
Okay then. She'll see him later.
And she takes all her luggage - one acquires so many possessions when one is a well-known alien in a gift economy - and heads off to catch a Teleri boat.
And she takes all her luggage - one acquires so many possessions when one is a well-known alien in a gift economy - and heads off to catch a Teleri boat.
The Teleri boats are beautiful and elegant and large enough even for her enormous amounts of luggage and there's a great commotion across the dock when another boat is somehow set loose but then everyone gets back on hers and is delighted to row her to Tol Eressea.
subtly_artistic
Off come the glasses. She starts poking at the principles of light; the spell spell she has doesn't last but if she can wrench off some of it the way enchanters do with things like "heat" and whatnot she might be able to make enough to see by. She makes a little progress on this during the boat ride.
And they arrive. Tol Eressea has wide sandy beaches, and people who are surprised but pleased to get visitors, and there's a loud splash in the water as her boat pulls into the harbor.
subtly_artistic
Maybe somebody dropped an oar. She thanks everybody and disembarks; one of her necklaces is now faintly glowing, although she's not sure how long it'll keep up with that.
Tol Eressea is dark and hushed and forested, inland from the beaches, and big enough she can't guess its perimeter just from standing on a beach. There are crickets chirping.
subtly_artistic
Some people live here, right? She didn't get around to actually learning to build a house. It will probably take her at least a week to get a magic house arranged even if that's her top priority. Maybe she can crash with somebody. In she hikes, dragging wheeled luggage. (Wheels: they caught on.)
There are people who live here. Sadly they either sleep under the stars or in flets in the trees. Though they're happy to build her a flet or share theirs.
subtly_artistic
Bella is kind of a house person. She will prioritize a magic house, and in the meanwhile under the stars is fine. She already feels a little clearer-headed out here. She can probably get it done real fast. She glows her necklace a little harder and starts work.
Fëanáro waits until the boat rows away to come pounce on her and demand to know what she's doing, but it takes all his restraint and the minute the boat is out he pounces. "I decided to come along," he says, "so I won't waste more time."
"Yeah. It's like I said. I'm older than you are. In the Outer Lands I'd be grown up. And there's so many things I want to do."