She keeps the comforter over her hand when she turns the paper over, and when she activates the mirror, blearily puzzled.

"Hello," says older gentleman from the other side of the mirror, speaking carefully and sounding quite foreign. "That didn't take long. I'm the one who wrote the letter." He waves.

"...Hi," says Annie stuffily. "I'b Annie. Id dat taked?"

"It is not, you may have it. Are you sick?"

"Yeah. By fiadcé is bagid be soub."

"Oh, dad'd be good, he's all worried ad I'b dired. Hee, Bells."

"Hi, Annie," says Spring, who has picked up the language from supervising Prime's call. "All I have do to heal you is touch you, okay?"

"Souds good. Wad's the side effegt?" wonders Annie, closing her eyes as Spring reaches out to lay her hand on Annie's face.

"... That is not a word choice I associate with, 'oh, yes, everything is going fantastically here and there have been no strange mixtures of magic at all,'" states Prime. "What happened?"

"I forgot I was wearing the oh fuck I'm so sorry -"

Spring sits down on the floor, eyes closed, and holds very still.

"Um, here, magic has side effects, and you get the main effect and the side effect if you touch a magic thing. Uh, now you're immune to - other mind affecting-magic? Yay?"

"She, uh, wouldn't have even noticed if it weren't already in effect... Um. It. Does a falling-in-love thing."

"So it does," squeaks Spring.

"... Of course it does," sighs Prime. "Why would it do anything else. Spring, is it the obvious?"

"Well, not here, that I know of, and I think a reversal artifact would've made the news, but you have... lots of magic? So maybe you can? I'm so sorry. I just wear it most of the time because you can - tweak how the items work if you're touching them and I kinda pull it off better than my fiancé does."

"I'm. Going to. Go get Aldaras," says Annie, and she climbs out of bed and goes into the kitchen.

When Annie has left the room: "How are we planning on handling this?"

"Aldaras? Uh, first, I am all better."

"It seems like the easiest solution to the problem of 'your head just got hijacked by a very convenient and probably evil necklace.' But, I might be wrong."

"I will still totally eat the soup, I have been thinking about the soup all morning - um - magic people from another world one of whom claims to be an alternate universe version of me sent me a magic mirror, which worked without me touching it, to talk to them, and then appeared, and one of them healed me, but she touched my necklace and now I think she's in love with the other one."

Spring makes a small and non-linguistic squeaking noise.

"... I think we should retrieve the mirror and we should both talk to ourselves."

"Hello," says the fiancé, Aldaras.

"Wh- yes?"

"Hi. I'm your alt. Nice to meet you, magical power, multiple worlds, seem to come in pairs with Bells romantically, something something, so on, so forth. How exactly would you describe the extent of the disturbing love necklace's disturbing results?"

"...Aldaras is a special case because he's twice-touched. So in addition to being magically in love with me he also is incapable of keeping secrets from me without stupid magic guilt trips. Um, it's... extensive. But not otherwise mind-altering. I did it on purpose when there was a mind-reader on the loose who could be expected to not have the usual range limit or telltale signs."

"Uh, shit. Set up portal, turn her over to us, we will - do - something. Nothing's instantly coming to mind for me as a post-emptive measure but I could try general countercurses in case... Is it on you or something even more awkward?"

"...Back of the hinged bookshelf?" suggests Annie. "There's a safe on the wall, for stashing the necklace when we're both asleep, but the bookshelf itself is blank."

"Show me, please."

Aldaras does, looking just a bit overwhelmed.

Spring gets up - a careful observer may notice that she is doing this more with her flying necklace than with her legs - and goes to the portal and through.

"You're not contagious or anything?" Ice asks Spring.

"I don't think so. She didn't say."

Ice sticks her head through the portal. "Hey, is she contagious or anything?"

"No. You have to actually touch the necklace."

"Okay." Ice retreats back to the Belfry. "Let's go put you in your house and get you some paper, how about."

"Revelation, I think they need microchips. Probably also explanations."

"Yeah. Let's - do that."

"Coming right up. Is there an Adarin or just a Bell?"

"She's engaged to an Adarin - he looks different, but I asked him about the relevant traits and he apparently fit them. But I didn't exactly have much time for conversation."

"I wouldn't - okay," says Annie, and she unclasps it and puts it in its box. "There. I'm really sorry. I was super sick."

"We'll - figure something out. It's not the end of the world. At least it's Prime she's stuck on and not, like, one of the deities or Katydid's cat."

"One of the deities? Katydid's cat? That could. That could happen?"

"Well, I don't know how your scary necklace works, but there exist deities - Spring is an acolyte of one of them, is how she does the healing - and Katydid's cat is her familiar and a person and stuff."

"... Okay. That. Makes sense. Is there a brochure on all of the alts?"

"Yeah, we took care of that after last time. What format do you want it in?"

"A... book? What else?"

"If you were higher tech you might want a computer version. Here." Revelation hands over a glossy little hardcover.

"Thank you."

"It does - add up a bit. Doesn't it."

"A bit. She happened to fall sick just before we happened to find them and she happened to be wearing the necklace, and her fiancé just so happened to be out of the room at the time so he couldn't warn us about the necklace. It's extremely questionable."

"Well. Ice is going to see if the alethiometer has anything - useful to say."

"Yes." Pause. "... Are you all right?"

"In general. Considering you are the person who had your mind partially hijacked by a disturbing conspiracy necklace."

"I'm still not sure what you mean. You know what happened."

"I do. I mean - if I were the one whose brain was hijacked by the conspiracy necklace, I would probably be locked in my house having a mental breakdown for a while. Are you having anything relating to that?"

"I am in my house. I don't think I'm having a full-fledged breakdown at this time."

"Good. Also, I'm giving you permission to rant about whatever you like to me. I will not be offended."

"I -" She shakes her head. "The fish, is my ranting. I don't need to vent. You know what happened."

"You seem to want to let them work on undoing it. It could still be - fixable."

"Of course I want to let them work on undoing it? Your head was hijacked and a necklace forced you to fall in love with me. That's not something that should happen."

"I know."

"I can't - just answer that - not first - do you understand? I can't."

"In that," he continues, "you're not somewhere with barely any life experience, you're not someone who annoys me or has pressured me, you're not otherwise taken, or with complicated romantic history that I don't want any part in, and you're not someone I've never met before. I know you. I like you. I can't just - turn you away without a second thought like if you were anyone else."

"What was the question, if you don't mind asking?"

"I -" She clamps her jaw shut and shakes her head mutely.

"Okay," he says, gently. "Should I just go completely against my nature and put all of my cards on the proverbial table so you know how to deal with them, then?"

"I'm sorry," she chokes out. "It's only - I'm sorry."

"For what? You're the victim, here."

"I'm obviously not handling it very well, by no means do you need to feel obligated or feel responsible or feel anything," she says, burying her face in her hands, "and I'm sorry."

The plantlike lean is back. This time she doesn't seem to notice, possibly because her face is still in her hands. She takes a deep, shaky breath, and nods.

"They are. I would interrogate them on their feelings and the situation that led up to their engagement, if I were there. But I'm not. I'm here."

She rubs at one of her eyes. And catches herself leaning and stops again. "I don't know what to tell you."

"Okay. According to the native Bell - Annie, I think? - you are basically intact aside from the - love thing, but that it's very thorough. How thorough, exactly?"

"Very," squeaks Aya.

Nod.

"Okay. I feel as if you're the victim here, and that this is a no-win situation no matter what I do. If I politely tell you that we can never be a couple, I break your heart, which I would rather not do. If I don't, if I do absolutely nothing, I leave you in a permanent, uncertain middle-ground. And, if I try to start any sort of relationship with you, I'm taking some sort of advantage of you, because your consent was stolen by a disturbing conspiracy love necklace."

"I'm - trying very hard not to try to do that."

"... Why?"

Aya makes a thin high sound in the back of her throat.

"That probably made your life a bit more difficult, sorry."

"Do you - mm. No, that's a bad idea, I should speak to your alts first."

"Do I what?"

"Safer if I reword. Would it be at all helpful for me to offer to hold you?"

"Making you feel better?"

"Yes."

"Do you want me to?"

"Yes."

He nods, and then without another word scoops her up into a gentle, snuggly hug.

Into which she utterly melts.

"I'm going to try to find a way for us to win," he promises.

"I," she starts, and then she stops and burrows her face against his shoulder rather than finish the sentence.

Prime doesn't ask, but he does keep holding her.

Most of the tension flows out of her and her breathing evens out and she snuggles happily.

"You want to talk to them about how to - handle me. Because I'm untrustworthy on the subject now."

"... Basically. But through no fault of your own."

"I didn't say you were blaming me." She sighs.

Snuggle.

He snuggles her for a surprisingly long amount of time, then kisses her hair and says, "I'm going to go talk to your alts."

Aya restrains her sighing and lets him go.

"Sorry," he says apologetically. Then he turns and departs, and goes looking for her alts.

"Hello. I'm looking for some sort of advice on Spring. From a Bell."

"Kiss her on the back of the neck," calls Phix from an adjoining room, one with computers in it.

"What are you looking for?"

"What she would want me to do if she knew in advance she was going to fall in love with me thanks to a disturbing conspiracy love necklace."

"And didn't know if it'd be permanent?"

"Yes. Please."

"Be easier if she knew. If it's permanent - then there's no point to treating her like she's incompetent, not when she's not going to get any more competent. If it's not, then - well, then it actually depends. I don't know for sure if she'd want it reversed, although I'm working on a spell in case I come up with something."

"... Why wouldn't she want it reversed?"

"It's not like it's - actively controlling her. It changed her, but it sounds like a one-time deal, and not on something trivial like whether she likes apricots. What would happen? Would she be able to understand the thoughts she generated during the period she was affected or would they be so much gibberish? Would there be more side effects - emotional or cognitive or magical or mnemic or personality-affecting or who knows what - if you just rip out the new thing like it's so much wood and plaster? Putting her back exactly the way she was would mean editing out a few hours of memories completely, obviously, so we have to do something else - the memory loss solution is pretty drastic for the same reasons the necklace is scary. And I don't think you're planning to torture her enough to make it appealing by comparison, although I suppose you could be doing it by mistake. I mean, I'm trying to design a fix that doesn't have these problems, so is Phix, so is Ice, but we don't know if we're going to be able to do it at all, let alone whether we'll be able to handle it neatly."

"That's. Not how I was thinking of it at all. But I suppose that was the point. Thank you."

"...Please avoid accidentally torturing her."

"I was trying not to? But for safety's sake, what do you consider 'accidentally torturing her'?"

"I have little to no idea what you've been saying to her, but I have been in a comparatively very abbreviated form of the situation where an Adarin's opinion is for some reason both important and negative. It doesn't really help much if the opinion is negative for outside reasons and there is technical acknowledgment of victim status where it belongs."

"Oh. No. I can go make sure, but - I'm quite certain I didn't do anything of that sort."

"Strictly positive opinion? So you consider her rational, competent, trustworthy, useful, pleasant company, an expert on her own brain, the works? And I suppose you were really here for Phix's advice and that only because Spring was coy?"

"Yep."

"... I think I understand now. Thank you."

"You might have legitimate non-insulting reason to talk to the new Adarin. Get information about the necklace's effects in nice neat numerical terminology."

"Mm. I feel like it would be more prudent to talk to Spring." Pause. "And apologize for accidentally insulting her by treating the love effect as 'not her own.'"

"That works too. But you can and probably should talk to the new Adarin at some point."

"Yes. Eventually. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Aaaand back to Spring. He knocks on the front door to her house.

There is a delay, and then she opens the door, just slightly red around the eyes but otherwise composed. There is a half-drawn many-legged starfish on her desk.

"Hello. I have an apology to make."

"O-oh?"

"The - I suppose most succinct way of putting it is in English. I misplaced the comma. I was treating it as, 'Aya, in love because of a necklace,' rather than, 'Aya in love, because of a necklace.'" Pause. "I did turn out to need to go to the other Bells, but not for the reasons I'd thought. I was mistaken. I'm sorry for doubting your judgement."

"It - is compromised. You aren't wrong."

"I wasn't right, either."

"Do you want to come in again, or...?"

"Sure. If you don't mind, anyway...?"

She shakes her head and stands aside and sits in front of her starfish.

"I can't necessarily tell the difference between - comma problems, and accurate but unpleasant observations."

"You have more skill at it than I do. Just look at my track record."

"I don't think I could have identified this one as the thing you're saying it is."

"Sure."

"Well, first of all - if I were caught off guard any sort of mind-affecting magic, I would want everyone around me to not believe a word I say until it was out of me no matter how convincing I was. Even if it was relatively minor. Even if it seemed like I was combating it, because I am extremely paranoid."

"Are we going to have to treat the new Adarin that way?"

"I think at this point there's little purpose to it. Also, it's likely the other Adarins will act different than I will, because - five hundred years old, and the most paranoid of us all."

"Would there be a point to doing this paranoia treatment with me? I mean - none of the sorts of things that I might do under the influence are - okay, some of them are, but none of the things that I'd actively try to convince you to let me do are things that would leave me in a harmed state if I were later - undone."

"That's the thing. I was doing the paranoia treatment with you. Because I thought that was what you'd want. And - I don't know what sorts of things would leave you in a harmed state or not. It varies from person to person."

"I - am having a hard time wanting to be the un-necklaced version of myself, right now, but that doesn't mean I want to hurt that version if I'm ever going to turn into it. Why would I do that?"

"See? That. There's - part of the disconnect, the misplaced comma. I thought, 'Of course you wouldn't care about it, you are being affected by a conspiracy necklace.' When, in fact, you're still you, with all of the intelligence and self-awareness and introspection that brings, so of course you would think that. And for missing that, I'm sorry."

"I. Don't know?"

"Well - with this - revised understanding of my relationship with my selves past and future - what do you want?"

"I would still like for you to be un-necklaced if it's possible to manage it without distressing you."

"I. Would rather not. I like winning, remember. And that is not."

"...Have I never explained my drawings to you?"

"No?"

"Well, when I was a kid, I didn't really dare do notebooks like the other Bells. Even if I'd made a cipher - well, it could have gone badly if someone had noticed. So I made a code that looked like pictures. I switched to regular text, when I moved here, but sometimes I still do pictures."

"That's - quite clever," praises Prime.

"Thanks. You didn't think it was weird when I identified the fish as my rant?"

"There are multiple forms of ranting. Some of them are non verbal."

"You keep leaning towards me," observes Prime. "And then noticing and stopping."

"I -" She sits up. "Yeah. I do."

"It's fine," he shrugs. "I'm not going to be offended by you leaning in my direction."

"The leaning is a precursor to attempting to snuggle you. If I don't interrupt it I will wind up in your lap."

"If you would like to snuggle, we can."

"Well it would hardly make any sense," he points out. "I was already aware of it."

"I mean in general. Starting from when it first happened. You could have made the portal and bolted."

"That would be needlessly cruel - it would feel like I was abandoning you."

"Well, thank you for not abandoning me." Nuzzle.

"You're welcome."

"Yes?"

"I don't think you want to hear it."

"All right. I'll take your word for it."

"Okay, I thought of something I don't know that Annie and the new Adarin, what was his name, might."

Aya is conceptually aware of this but having trouble with the execution. Eventually she floats to a standing position (yay, non-mind-control flying necklace) and heads for the portal.

"Hi," says Aldaras, for lack of anything better to say.

"Hello. We have questions."

"Separately, at least to start. If that's okay."

"Uh - sure." Annie kisses Aldaras and gets off the couch to lead Spring to the bedroom for separated conversations.

"Am I going to - calm down?" Spring asks Annie plaintively, once the door is closed. "Whenever I have a moment in which I'm not miserable or scared or confused I'm so horny I can barely stand it. I can't even ask - it'd be too - he's not - will it calm down?"

"...Uh, some," says Annie. "I think. I didn't have the - when I touched it we pretty much had sex immediately. If you don't - I'm not sure if that will change things, but for me, it calmed down enough that I can go to classes and read and so on without - problems."

"Okay," sighs Spring. "And - I don't want to ask your fiancé myself but if you find out I'd like to know about what happens when it's one way, his example is better than no example even if he's not a Bell."

"I'll ask. I'm so sorry."

"I know." Spring sighs and opens the door.

"'Adarin nu-' right, uh. She. Doesn't have one. She's like - 999999 in my head."

"Yeah. I mean, it's still - I'm - my head's working all right. It just had a renovation."

"Yes, I imagine that would be quite a renovation."

"A bit. It leaks into other things, too. There was a part in one of the books about how the numbers are - how they're on the same scale? I'm pretty sure mine are not on that scale. Because I'm factoring in how things affect Annie, too. Because..."

"999999. Error. Yes, I understand. Thank you."

Aldaras nods.

When the door opens Annie sidles out and flops on her fiancé again. Kiss!

"Yeah, I read that part, but it didn't seem urgent compared to reading the rest."

Kiss! Snuggle.

"Yes. Also, if you want it, later I can make items that let you fly."

"I would really like that! Side effect free magic is awesome."

"It is! I'd like one too, please."

"Sure. It's on my mental to-do list."

"It can look like almost anything. This is mine." Spring touches her necklace.

"Aww, pretty! I think if we go around flying people are going to want to swipe whatever's letting us do it, so we might want to go with something more unobtrusive."

"... Tempted to say 'second earring.'"

"Aww! Yeah, we can make them our wedding earrings. Nobody would guess it, if they match."

"Yeah! Plus, we'd never take them off. So, bonus."

"I'll need you to supply the earrings, but that will do fine," shrugs Prime.

"We have them already, that's how it works is you get them in pairs, we just haven't had our wedding yet. We should invite all our alts! The ones who look like me can pretend to be Chorasmian and go in veils."

"Is there a similar tradition for men in that culture? Because a large portion of us also look exactly the same. Conduit and Revival could probably get away with pretending to be sisters, but I think every other but me will have trouble."

"Mmm, no, there's not. We can have an outdoor wedding and they can have scarves."

"Also. White hair. Somewhat noticeable."

"Hats. Or you could have dyed it."

"I suppose Cypress and Rain can pretend to be twins from a circus. That could be fun to watch."

"Well, maybe we can just have a very private ceremony and then it won't matter."

She is going from the Belfry to her house.

"Are you all right?"

"I'm - about the same on net."

"... Okay. Do let me know if there's anything I can do to help?"

Whimper, cling, sigh.

"That might have made it worse, I apologize," he murmurs. "But you also looked like you desperately needed a hug."

"You can hug me whenever you want," she murmurs.

"Thank you, but I also don't want to make your life any more difficult in doing so."

"That's not really - how I'm conceptualizing it."

"... Are you willing to explain, or...?"

"Do you want to hear it?"

"I wouldn't have asked if I didn't."

"I just - when there aren't Adarins around the other Bells giggle about what prudes you all are and I'm not sure you thought that through in terms of whether you want to hear it as opposed to whether you ought to ask."

"Fair, but what I mean to say is - I'm not wandering into this blind, proclaiming with arrogance, 'Yes, I will definitely be fine.' I genuinely understand the sorts of things I can listen to, and you're not in the right genre to make me balk. If you would prefer not to tell me, that's fine, but please don't think I don't know what I'm getting into and cannot take the truth."

"Any minute now one of my alts is going to come find me and say have you considered that we could try killing you."

"They'd have a point," she mutters, but she clings.

"They would. But - please don't do it for my sake. If you are sick of being in love with me and switching between despair and terror and lust and would like any way out, then I won't stop you. But if you're - worried that you'll say or do something to instantly drive me away, or that I'll condemn you from on high for not wanting certain things to happen in an attempt to influence your mind again, in another way - don't. I've already quite decided not to abandon you. If you haven't noticed I'm something of a stubborn bastard."

She presses her face into his chest and sobs.

Prime is perfectly all right with being cried on for an extended period of time. He pets her hair, soothingly.

"Shh, no," he murmurs, "no, Aya, please, don't - convince yourself to die for me. I - please, it would - it would be extremely distressing. Don't. Not - not for me." His voice cracks a bit, and he takes a breath and forces evenness into it. "You've also missed something. I wouldn't have even offered to 'help with lust' after a great deal of forethought if I did not want you in some capacity. If you were a friend of mine, and I weren't willing for it to become anything else, ever, I would not let it even seem like an option." Pause. "... It is. If you're curious."

She shivers. It's hard to tell with exactly what emotion when she's clinging to him and still has her face buried in his shirt.

He isn't going to ask. He'll just keep being cried on - that's fine. Hair pet, hair pet.

"It'd take two minutes, Revelation can do it so it doesn't hurt, she might wind up a daeva, it might work - why not?" says Path, hopping a step backwards.

"It might work, indeed. But think about it this way. You can be resurrected, without the uncertainty of daeva and summoning. If you were brought back, you would be exactly as you were. Do you want to die? Because that's what you're asking her to do."

"We did it with Cypress," says Path darkly. "Because he didn't like the way he came back the first time he died."

"Yes. And, still sorry for that, but. He volunteered, correct?"

"No one is planning to murder Spring. I'm mentioning that it's an option."

"... First. But you doing it at all is also distressing, just - not enough for me to stop you," he says in a lowered tone.

"Does there exist anything I can do that won't distress you, here? I know you want me un-necklaced."

"It is a distressing situation. I mentioned the no-win viewpoint, earlier?"

"Yes. But if we can't win, might as well - lose cheaply and efficiently."

"...Let us know if you come to a firm decision," says Path, and he flies away.

Prime is silent.

Aya is weeping very quietly.

He keeps holding her, throughout. But - yeah, no, silence unless prompted.

"I know you can. I don't want you to have to."

"I have to deal with something. That might be the easiest thing, even."

"I would do whatever would make you happy but if there isn't a thing like that then I have to do something else."

"I know. I'm not upset with you, Aya, I'm - frustrated at the situation."

Nod. Cling.

Snuggle. Silence.

"Yes. I - sorry."

Snuggle.

"Good."

"Mhm."