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The ray gun, retrieved from lost and found, is in Ingress' hand. Actually, it's still in Ingress-as-Mary's hand. They are in Ingress' room, tucked away from the adults in the House.

"Okay. We try this, and if it doesn't work, then we'll tell Tom, and he'll figure out how to get us back."

Please work, please work, please work, she thinks.

"Ready?"

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"Ow, did she throw you all around or something?" She rubs at her aching back.

It's a good thing Ingress' family heals quickly.

"Now she'll work me that much harder."

At least she doesn't have to deal with Galadan, though.

"Well," Mary says, sounding almost amused, "I expect you did about as poorly on my lessons, as I did on yours."

The difference being that Galadan at least knows it wasn't Mary doing them!

"He's really mean. Meaner than Nynaeve."

Which, honestly, Ingress would not have thought possible.

"But... he's right, isn't he?"

"He often is." Mary is very matter-of-fact. "If he were not, he would not be my tutor.

"But he is not always. He is very good at making you think you are stupid if you disagree with him, so it is important to remember that."

She nods.

"I've been lying to Tom and Door. A lot. About coming to Milliways. But that's- I shouldn't, should I? Because if something did happen, they wouldn't know where I was. Megwyn would, but she might not get there in time to help."

Mary hesitates.

"- someone ought to know, I suppose," she says, finally. "I do not tell my uncle everything that happens, if I think he would stop me from doing what I wished. But my uncle has not been the one to help me, most times, either - it is the people here who have."

"That's why I thought it would be fun to be you. Because you're older and can do what you like."

Tom and Door are always the ones who protect her and help her. With everything. They're just too overprotective at the moment. Sigh.

Mary shakes her head.

"It is not that I can do as I like," she explains. "It is that I do it anyways."

She's been doing that since she was younger than Ingress is now.

"Wouldn't Galadan be cross about it, though? If you got in trouble because you weren't careful?"

"Of course he would," Mary says, startled. "There are many people who would. But people are often cross with me. That does not stop me if I think I am right to do something."

Ingress thinks about this a moment.

"I suppose," she says, but she sounds slightly doubtful.

How do you know if you're right?

"Maybe I should just be much more careful from now on."

"It is not a bad thing, to be careful," Mary says. (Carefully.) "It is good to be watchful and to be prepared, and not to do things that are stupid. But you ought to think for yourself, too, in choosing how you will be careful, and what you will prepare."

(Mary doesn't quite see the irony in telling Ingress that she should listen to Mary, and thus think for herself.

"Grown-ups can be very clever, but they are wrong sometimes too. You ought not only to listen to anyone."

"Except Megwyn."

Don't argue this one, Mary. Ingress can totally trust Megwyn. It's canon.

"Sometimes, I expect you may be more right than Megwyn is."

Megwyn is a horse.

. . . which is actually a point in her favor. Mary thinks more highly of the good sense of creatures, generally, than she does of people. But still.

She laughs. "I don't think so, but I can hear her mind better than you can. Anyway, at least we're sorted out now. We can make decisions a lot easier."

She shifts on one foot.

"Did you like being me?"

Mary considers this.

"I think," she says, honestly, "I might have liked it if I really were you - but I was not. I was only me, looking like you. That I did not like. I should rather be me, and look the way I am."

"Me, too. Your boots were very pinchy on your feet."

"- really?"

Mary blinks down at her feet. They feel normal to her . . .

"Do you think I am growing again?"

"I think I'm not used to wearing your kind of clothes. Everything felt tight and pinchy."

She is sooooo glad to be in her own clothes again.

"But maybe you are growing. You're quite tall already."

"Yes," Mary says, with pleased serenity. "That is something I am glad to be again, as well."

Kindly: "But I am sure you shall grow more, as well."

"Who knows? Maybe one day I'll be even taller than you!"

"- oh, I do not think that is likely," Mary says, rather quellingly.

Ingress laughs until the bruise on her ribs pains her.

"We'll see."

Maybe she'll try and get taller just to show Mary's wrong!

No, Ingress isn't like that.

"Hey, I want to go see Megwyn. She'll be so relieved. Not that she doesn't like you. She does."

Edited 2010-04-14 04:28 (UTC)

"You needn't worry," Mary says, with something that might be very slight amusement. "I should not be pleased to find you had been replaced with someone like me, either."

"You know," says Ingress, quite seriously. "I would have been scared about being switched with anyone else. It wasn't scary to be switched with you. I knew we'd be okay."

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