Old muse looking for a home

[bellbound]

Just when I'd grown used to you leaving me alone.

So where are we off to this time? A town full of horrors worse than the Dead? A deadly enchanted forest? A game? I'm still to be collared, I see. Wonderful. Just wonderful.

Comments

I can take a look!

[bellbound]

Whether you will have any say remains to be seen.

[And look, that's a gleam in his eyes. The one perk of heading off to a game: The Abhorsen may not be there. Unless his dear writer deliberately chooses one with Sabriel in it, of course.]

:D If you're interested, we have a test drive going on!

[bindsthedead]

Perhaps. But even if someone is foolish enough to set you loose, someone else will find a way to bind you. [At least Sabriel really really hopes that's the case. The idea of Mogget being set loose permanently isn't something she wants to contemplate.]

thanks for letting me know!

[bellbound]

Confident, aren't you. Ever more the Abhorsen. [He yawns.] I daresay you're right.

[She might be. She might not.]

[bindsthedead]

I have to be. [Not that Sabriel's particularly happy about it. Still, she scratches Mogget behind his ears.]

There's something I've been meaning to ask you- it's about my father.

[bellbound]

[He closes his eyes lazily, enjoying the attention.]

Hmm?

[bindsthedead]

[Scritch, scratch. Sometimes it's almost possible to pretend Mogget is a real cat.]

I always- I always thought his name was Abhorsen. But what was his real name?

[There are many, many more questions she wants to ask- about her father, and other things. But she'll start with this.]

[bellbound]

[...Aha. She doesn't know her own father's name. It's almost comically pitiful that he kept her so ignorant. Mogget opens one eye.]

Terciel.

[bindsthedead]

Thank you. There's so much I don't know- about him, about the Old Kingdom, about Charter Magic- but I am trying to learn what I can.

[bellbound]

Naturally. But how can you do so while trapped in one of those games?

[bindsthedead]

In Keeliai, we sometimes find things from our own worlds when we make landfall. I've found several books- and one of the Sendings. [Not to mention that some of what she's learned about Malicant makes it sound like an extremely powerful Free Magic elemental.]

[bellbound]

[He considers this.] Better than nothing, I suppose. You'd have less to catch up on if you were brought up in the Old Kingdom, but your father had his reasons.

[bindsthedead]

I think I understand- some of those reasons, now. He wanted to keep me safe. [An understandable thing, considering how much danger Sabriel had encountered during her brief time in the Old Kingdom.] But I wish I knew- had known him better.

[bellbound]

Alas, the past is the one thing none of us can change. [Mogget certainly knows what it's like to wish otherwise.] Sacrificing the time he would have spent with you was the price your father paid to keep you safe.

[bindsthedead]

I know, but- there's so much I don't know about him, and the Old Kingdom, and- and Abhorsen's- my own duties! [And Sabriel snaps her mouth shut after that, because it sounds childish, even to her.]

[bellbound]

[He gives her a pointed look.] Will complaining about it make any difference? You have read the Book of the Dead. That should be enough for any Abhorsen worth her salt.

[bindsthedead]

Yes, I have. [And given the parts of it she can remember, Sabriel suspects it's a good thing that she can't remember certain chapters unless they're necessary.] And I have mastered the bells- everything else, you and Touchstone can help me learn- or I'll discover it on my own.

[bellbound]

Good. So really, you have everything you need. [Look, he's almost being optimistic! Whatever it takes.]

[bindsthedead]

[Sabriel's mouth twists into a small smile.]

Yes. For the Old Kingdom, or any game I'm thrust into.

[bellbound]

[He blinks sleepily, acknowledging the smile.]

Enough for now.