"Hi, guys," says Bella when they come in. "Should I close up and show you to Pantheon?"

Bella goes and puts up the "Closed" sign and locks the door, and shows them up the stairs to the portal. She collects her mirror to Ice, and leads them through to the Pantheon hub, and calls her alt.

"That's me. And I have enough stuff with me to get started on fetching your daughter right away, and all I need from you is her full name. I should warn you that the spell does not behave completely predictably with respect to non-humans, at least non-humans who aren't witches like me. The first time I cast it on a mage, he came back without his magic and left a separate ghost, since mage ghosts more or less are their magic. His sister had to kill him so I could do it over again with a revised version. I don't have any good way to figure out in advance how the spell will work on Medallion critters unless a Medallion critter wants to visit my world and let my alethiometer look at them - and in my world, if you go there, your soul emerges from wherever it usually lives and turns into an animal." She gestures at Path on her shoulder. "Which has its own side effects, and the consensus seems to be that it's not worth it unless you're going to move there. So there could be some unanticipated side effect - or the possibility that it won't work at all - with your daughter."

"What are the - downsides of having an animal soul outside of my body? Because I'm willing to have one if it means that my daughter won't - have any unanticipated side effects," says Mrs. Adams.

"Unless you separate - which can be done with teleporting and then it doesn't hurt much, and which thirteen-year-olds of my species routinely manage the long way around within a few tries - your daemon will have to stay close to you at all times, within a few yards. You don't control what kind of animal you get; most of them are mammals or birds, but it is not impossible that you will get something like an insect, or - more immediately dangerous - a fish. If the daemon is hurt you are too, if he or she dies so do you and vice versa. If anyone besides you, other daemons, or in some cases extremely intimate partners touches your daemon it is incapacitatingly painful. And of course if you don't outright move to Chamomile, no one will know why you have whatever kind of creature following you around and your daemon will not be able to do his or her parallel socializing job." Ice pauses, then says, "You might not actually get one. In my world there are talking bears, and they don't have daemons, although they say that their armor is their souls. So you might be not-human-enough that Chamomile will let you not have a daemon."

"I feel like a special snowflake," drawls the thylacine. He is male. "I can wait on the name, how long does the alethiometer take to answer a question?"

"It's pretty quick about getting me an answer. It is not necessarily quick about getting me a coherent one." She peers at her thingamajigs. "Bugbear possess human soul. Well, obviously, he's right there..." She formulates a new question.

"Are you going to stay close to her or separate so you aren't around all the time?" Path asks him.

"... Probably separating. Being around her all of the time would be very noticeable."

"Can you teleport?" Path asks Mrs. Adams directly, as his witch is busy with the alethiometer. "That's the fastest way to get it over with. The other way hurts."

"No," says Mrs. Adams, shaking her head. "The other way?"

"Physically moving away," says Path. "Zeviana and Lecasryn did it on ordinary ground, but witches usually do it in a wasteland up in the North where daemons can't go. The daemon's usually the one to change their mind, if one of them does. So that makes it easier to get it done on the first try."

"... Lovely. It sounds like it's not fun," says the daemon.

"It's not. If you go a little away from her you can see how."

"That seems like it would be easier. But - daughter first," she replies.

"... I'll teach her about talking animal safety early," she drawls.

"Okay, if that's the order you want to do things in," says Ice dubiously, and she goes back to thingamagjig twiddling. "Ah, here we go. Spell bugbear spell human same - it should work on her with no special complications, Phix will be thrilled - and we should go do this in Pantheon or Medallion, not here, unless you think she ought to have a daemon too."

"No, it seems like it would be a bad idea."

"They're a little more convenient for kids, they can shapechange till puberty, but yeah." Ice heads for the portal again.

"I need her full name, and that's all."

"Cecelia Margaret Adams."

Ice stands back, not wishing to intrude.

"Your alt in Prime's New Kystle might be a reasonable babysitter if you need to stash her somewhere while you lay groundwork," suggests Ice.

"... I'd have to meet her, first. But possibly."

"We could go there now, if you like."

To New Kystle and through Prime's house and to where Lynn lives.

Mrs. Adams quirks an eyebrow, and then murmurs something soothing to her daughter. She was a bit disturbed by the Strange Loud Man.

"There are two of you, I'm seriously scared now, what do I do, am I married twice, what is my life now? I don't think the world can handle two Lynns!"

"If you're married twice now me and my alts have a really serious conversation coming up. No, this is just your Lynn's alt. Who will be going home to her own world eventually and not overburdening yours."

"He has good qualities. Somewhere."

"Hey, I take offense to-"

Mrs. Adam's daughter peeks out at Savir, the Strange Loud Man.

"For example," drawls Lynn.

Her English teacher counterpart snorts.

"Nah, I can get a hold of pretty boy. Be free."

"Had to be different somehow."

(Savir continues to coo over Cecelia. Yes, his Lynn's got one of her own, but adorable kids. Adorable kids.)

"Aside from the obvious?" snorts Mrs. Adams, pointing towards the husband. "Also, I'm a bugbear, don't think you're that."

"Not since I last checked."

"I can go find and throw a medallion at you, if you prefer to be a huge bear woman."

"Pass. My pedigree is already too complicated."

"Neat trick."

"... Do this say weird things about me? One of my wives is a bear woman!"

"One of your wives," says Mrs. Adams, archly.

Lynn raises an eyebrow.

"There is no possible outcome of this conversation where you are not sleeping outside."

"But I didn't even -"

"No possible outcome," agrees Mrs. Adams.

"It's easier if you just give up now. Save us all some time."

"Sure, I'm sleeping outside. Now let's see you enforce it."

Mrs. Adams cracks up.

"I love you, too."

"So um, serious question. I mean, I obviously know which one is which, but - it is confusing to have two wi- uh. A second version of my wife, whom I love very much."

"You love me very much?"

"What? No, no, that's not what I-"

"Are you sure? She's another version of me, surely she must have qualities that you love."

"Well, yeah, but-"

"Buuuut...?"

Mrs. Adams snorts. "Regardless. He has brought up a good point, dead man walking though he is."

"Mm. We could take our last names. To differentiate each other by. Though mine is now a mouthful."

"You're welcome."

"Corvalias. To answer your question. Annoyingly long and overly formal."

"Thank you. Brevity is the soul of wit, however. Shall we shorten it to Corva?"

"Sure. That works."

"And I," says Mrs. Adams wryly, "can creatively be called Adams."

Savir snorts. "You are so great at naming things."

"He is my soul animal. I got him twenty minutes ago."

"... Okay."

"Try to keep up."

"You didn't know what he was, either."

"I admit nothing."

"I am somewhat tempted," muses Adams, "to name my soul animal 'Jeff.'"

"Inspired," drawls Corva.

"Uhhh.... Hold on, I've got this. Name, name, naaaame..."

"I'm sure that saying 'name' over and over will help with that."

"Are you quite sure you're sane?" says an amused Adams.

"Yes! Well, maybe, I might be a bit off the deep end but it's part of my cha- nevermind! Silence your face, not-wife!"

"What, all of it? All at once?"

"Yes. He means all of it. You may not blink, breathe, smile, or-"

"Aha! Got one! Varlan. Varlan the - dog... thing."

"Sure, why not," sighs the thylacine. "It's better than Jeff."

"Behold, our naming prowess."