many people move here to start families

[cross_and_bow]

Bella is hanging out in a Jarvis - the familiar one - handwriting a nonaggression proposal-slash-bribe. Has to be handwritten. Damn fussy demons. At least it's okay for her to conjure rather than personally harvesting the weird ink she's supposed to use.

Comments

[pythbox]

It looks glowy and green, and surrounded by worried-looking monks. The monks appear to be hurriedly casting a spell.

[cross_and_bow]

"That glowy green-ness you saw in your crystal ball," says Bella. "There's a lot of that, and there's monks around it, casting something. I'm gonna skip back to the beginning of the ritual and pentagon the language they're casting in..."

[keyed_up]

Soph is shivering, in spite of the fixed temperature, and looks desperately at Sherlock.

[pythbox]

The ritual was set up in a hurry, and concerns the safety of something called "the Key". Most of the monks do nothing but chant, "The Key will be hidden. The Key will be safe. The Key will be protected."

And then the spell ends, and the glowy green light winks out, and the monks clutch each other in relief.

[cross_and_bow]

Bella reports a translation of the words of the spell.

And then she goes on watching the monks in case any of them are going to conveniently explain what just happened to each other.

[pythbox]

Nope.

Instead, two minutes after the spell went off, they were all casually slaughtered by Bath Lady.

[cross_and_bow]

"Bath Lady has some serious strength and she killed everybody who cast the spell a couple minutes after they were done," reports Bella.

[eversomuchfun]

"That's going to make it difficult to question them about it," Sherlock observes.

[cross_and_bow]

"Yes. Another reason to be upset Jane's down, I guess we didn't have enough." Bella nibbles her lip. "- I know you're conveniently immune to all kinds of things," she says to Soph, "so you're not a mint and you've never been to Alethia, but what did you get in your fake memories when I presumably checked out your counterfactual daemon and coin color?"

[keyed_up]

"...G-glowy green," says Soph slowly. "And a - a pretty bird, I didn't know what kind it was."

[cross_and_bow]

Juliet conjures up one of the Alethian books of daemon identification.

She spends another square on reproducing Soph's counterfactual daemon in illusion form.

She looks through the book, silently, swiftly, following the identification key.

"Shiny cowbird," she reports.

[keyed_up]

"...And?"

[cross_and_bow]

"Cowbirds are like cuckoos. They lay their eggs in other birds' nests and expect the other birds to look after them like they belong there."

[eversomuchfun]

"Or perhaps," says Sherlock, "to put it another way, they are laid as eggs in the nests of foreign species and are dependent on the host family for sustenance and protection until they grow to adulthood. Two hours ago you did not have a sister, dear Juliet, but now you do."

[cross_and_bow]

"By what logic? Maybe if the spell had worked on me and we found out some other way I'd call it close enough for government work, but she's a stranger to me."

[keyed_up]

Soph sits down on Canada, turned away, sniffling.

[eversomuchfun]

"You don't remember her," he says sharply, "but she remembers you. Your parents have two daughters. You may choose to abdicate responsibility for your artificial family member, but you'll find I don't support you in that choice."

And he shakes his head and sits down by Soph.

[cross_and_bow]

"What am I supposed to do with her? I have not had - how old are you supposed to be?"

[keyed_up]

"...Seventeen."

[cross_and_bow]

"I do not have seventeen years of experience of being her sister."

[eversomuchfun]

"Develop a counterfactual pastwatch. Study up. I'll spot you the hex."

[cross_and_bow]

"Those monks who were casting this spell wanted me to protect something. This was exactly what they were hoping for, except they didn't expect me need to do homework on the subject. Shouldn't we find out what she is first?"

[keyed_up]

"I'm not anything! I'm not - anything, I'm just - I'm Soph," says Soph. "Lie-detect me, I'm Soph, I'm Soph, I'm not going to hurt anybody!"

[cross_and_bow]

"You're not going to try to hurt anybody. What if you're just - rigged to explode? We don't know."

[eversomuchfun]

"Fine, then," says Sherlock. "I agree that finding out where she came from is the more urgent priority. Let's do that. In the meantime, however, I commend your paranoia but suggest you temper it with empathy."