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

[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.