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]

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.

[taste_tester]

Addy could not be more thrilled. She gets Aedyt extravagant birthday presents. Fiddly ones with lots of tiny moving parts.

[pythbox]

Aedyt takes to calling Addy "Auntie Addy". She also, as she grows older, gets interested in art. Drawing, painting, sewing, sculpting, glassmaking, pottery, jewelry, embroidery, beadwork - any kind of thing that you make with your hands, she's all over. And she gets pretty good at them, too.

[taste_tester]

Of course she does! Addy approves. And comes up with obscure new art forms to interest her in.

[pythbox]

It becomes increasingly obvious that she's probably never going to run out of new things to do with her power.

Her power is not the only thing in her life, though. She also has a family! She has a mummy and a daddy and a brother who lives in Safesun, and she loves them all very much.

[pina_colada]

Her brother thinks she's adorable. He picks her up a lot, and makes her loaded Belgian waffles for breakfast, and teaches her board games and how to do card tricks. "I'll know if you're planning to cheat," he teases her.

[pythbox]

"I never cheat," she protests, and one of his checkers mysteriously changes colour from red to black.