"Is there a way we can read it?"

"I didn't bring a copy, but I can get a spare the next time I'm at the Eyrie and give it to you later."

"Thanks!"

And Isabella flies around invisibly looking at things and gets summaries of what stuff is and tells them about her world (the arm embedded jewels are called Kisses, they are installed in babies yes with painkillers and do not grow there, yes her world has birth control but it doesn't work perfectly and also angels don't use it because they need more angels and this has troubling social effects down the road but they're working on it, no Jovah doesn't have a rule about gay people she just didn't know they existed, huh isn't it interesting that Mirelótë is bisexual when neither Isabella is, etc. etc.) and then she is escorted home with some scrolls to try if Jovah says she may.

"I can't figure out what we did wrong with the parameterization."

"Yeah, even looking at it knowing it didn't work I don't see the mistake."

"Exactly. And that's really upsetting, it could've been somewhere much worse -"

"Maybe we should let it sit a bit, look more at the worlds we've already found. Maybe it'll jump out at us after a week of not beating our heads against it."

"Valar don't move fast, we're probably safe for a week."

"Yep. Also, this time we know not to show up if we get a summons to Taniquetil, that's our cue to go to Samaria and try Jovah's intervention-mostly-only-on-demand model."

Fervent nod.

Hug. "Which means we should figure out how to call your parents and tell them we're all right."

"I left them a note."

"He did. It said 'I'm going to get Bella and if I die it's your fault'."

"That is not a reassuring note. Rúmil, did you by any chance improve on that before we left."

"Yes, but I still think finding a way to contact his parents is a good idea."

Nod. "Modified earwire's probably the easiest way."

"It won't let the Valar tug us back or anything?"

"...I don't think so but I'm apparently not doing very well on predicting how spells will turn out this week and it might have more to do with how Valar work than how the spell works anyway. I'm not actually certain they couldn't do that without the presence of an earwire, honestly, they didn't have an active connection of any kind to Materia when they kicked me out."

Nod. "Well. Let's get to work on that, then we'll know if most spells are behaving as we expect."

Yup. Earwire notes from her old crystal ball and off they go.

It's nice, quietly working on things again, reasonably far from the Valar.

It is!

It takes a few days. Bella takes breaks to hang out with Mirelótë; she likes having an alt.

Having an alt is really nice! Epic's continues teaching his technology.

And eventually they have an earwire and Epic should call his parents. ...Or maybe Rúmil should call them first so Epic doesn't say something like "if I had died it would have been all your fault but instead I'm just running away forever".