without recourse

[luminous_regnant]

Bella doesn't even know that Elspeth had plans to visit Downside until after she finds that Jane is offline, that wishing doesn't fix it. Elspeth is a grownup; Edward does not monitor her every minute of every day, does not report all her comings and goings to her mother.

It's Addy who tells her, uncharacteristically grave, after Bella makes the announcement that Aurum will be isolated until Elspeth finds a door. Elspeth rescheduled an appointment with Addy to go offworld.

And now Elspeth is not going to find them a door, because Elspeth is gone, might well stay gone till Jane is fixed, because time is only synced up due to Jane. And Bella cannot fix Jane. Elspeth might find a door after fifty years have gone by in Aurum.

Bella makes the revised announcement by brainphone to everyone except Jake.

Jake she tells in person. Jake she clutches by the shoulders while he sobs and shakes. Jake she offers to put to sleep so Elspeth will not come home to find him having done something regrettable. Because she will, eventually, come home. Jake she tucks into bed like she's his mother and sends into dreamless nothing so he doesn't have to suffer however long his imprint will be vanished where he cannot follow.

And then she goes to Edward and, because she is a vampire, she does not cry, but she does sob.

Comments

[pythbox]

"No-o," says Aedyt, shaking her head.

[taste_tester]

"Let's play with some other stuff, then," says Addy, and she produces an imperial pamphlet. "What do you suppose could do with this?"

[pythbox]

Aedyt pokes the pamphlet.

One letter of the title gradually becomes pink.

[taste_tester]

"That's one thing," agrees Addy, beaming. "What else?"

[pythbox]

The next letter becomes blue. The one after that becomes purple.

[taste_tester]

"What about things besides colors? Could you make the letters into different letters?"

(Addy couldn't, but she's not sure if that's because her power source can't do that or because her power source is still illiterate.)

[pythbox]

The pink V undergoes partial mitosis and becomes a W.

[taste_tester]

Addy applauds, updates her power-copy, and says, "What else?"

[pythbox]

Aedyt frowns in concentration at the pamphlet.

She pokes it again.

The colour changes reverse themselves one by one; then, with another poke and somewhat more difficulty, the W merges back into a V.

[taste_tester]

Addy turns a page. This page has an illustration. She watches Aedyt expectantly.

[pythbox]

Aedyt contemplates the illustration.

Then she rubs her finger over the page and erases part of it.

[taste_tester]

"Ooh," says Addy. "Do you think you could put it back?"

[pythbox]

"I dunno," she says.

She tries!

It doesn't go back as neatly as the things she undid before.

[taste_tester]

"Hmm," says Addy. "But you remember how it was, don't you?"

[pythbox]

"Yeah," she says, frowning at it. The pamphlet will not be allowed to defeat her!

She reverts back to the erased version, then pokes the page again. The erased part returns to its original state.

[taste_tester]

Addy grins and pokes her in the forehead again. "What else do you think you could do?"

[pythbox]

"I dunno!" says Aedyt.

[taste_tester]

"Hmmm," says Addy. She can think of a dozen slight variants - but she can't do any of them till Aedyt does, and she doesn't want to confine this extremely young mind towards a single way of thinking about her magic. "Well, there's letters, and there's pictures, and there's paper..." she says leadingly.

[pythbox]

She pokes the pamphlet again.

Its pages come unstuck.

[taste_tester]

Addy grins at her and claps.

[pythbox]

Aedyt beams!

[taste_tester]

Magic lessons are ongoing. They mostly involve Addy gently suggesting things to try and encouraging Aedyt to come up with things to try, at first, and then when the original scope of the power is pretty well mapped Addy starts pushing her on fine detail work and speed and editing "blind" - restoring things she hasn't seen originals of, filling in blanks with context-appropriate things regardless of whether the context makes any sense to Aedyt, doing the sorts of things photo-editing software can't actually do like remove a person to show what was behind them.

[pythbox]

Aedyt finds her magic lessons fascinating, and frequently practices outside of 'class'. Especially with mummy. She has great fun practicing magic with mummy.

[taste_tester]

Addy is very encouraging of extracurricular practice!

[pythbox]

Her mummy helps her think of all kinds of interesting little changes to make to the world around her. Like, say, unlocking doors. Or turning on lights. Even when the lightbulb doesn't actually work. Some of them, like moving the hands on an old clock, are hard until she gets the trick and then really easy; others, like duplicating soap bubbles, stay tricky even with practice.