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In the end, it's Jonathan's mad attempt to bring himself closer to Arabella that foists him forward into a mad arrangement of lights, music, people! He knows that sanity lingers just out of mind and that he will have to capture it back, but once he travels once more on this strange road (through a door and not a mirror), he thinks that if he cannot bring himself to Arabella, perhaps he can bring the fairy folk to him.

Jonathan Strange will host a party so luxurious and wonderful that they have no choice but to attend.

He uses magic to deck the lobby of the hotel with shimmering lights and stars that hang upon the ceiling in constellations and patterns that cannot possibly exist. Food dots each corner, but if the eye were to catch it properly, it would be noted that it's slightly off. The drink, however, is exact in its sumptuous rich red tones and sparkling vivacious notes.

Best of all, there is the music.

Harps and lutes and violins accompany the piano and encourage those to dance. More than that, the spell that Jonathan weaves ensures that all who pass the lobby feel the need to mingle and dance, not allowing for anyone to dawdle.

Arabella will come to him now. He knows it. He must only wait.

And there will be a party to maintain until then.

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Chiana grins again, sharp but a little longer now, like he's worth keeping the smile going. "Chiana."

"Ah, but you have the name and the look of a fairy," he says, no longer suspicious but teasing. "How can you doubt that I had mistaken you for one, then?"

"Maybe Fairies have the names and looks of Nebari," Chiana shoots back, before eating some more curry.

"Do you have them where you come from, then?" Jonathan wonders, thinking that perhaps she would have some sort of inclination or tips as to how he can do his spells better to attract them. "Should I make more curry?"

"If you want other people to have some," Chiana replied, absolutely shameless about eating the entire dish herself. She was skinny, but she ate a lot. She ate another bit before answering his first question. "We got lots of different peoples where I'm from. I've never met a Fairy, but we might. I'd never met an Earthan before ending up here," she added with a shrug.

"I've never been called an Earthan before. I'm English," he says, wondering what on earth ... oh, there it is. How clever! Strange refrains from giggling, but that's the madness at play. He's much more in control than that, normally. "Well, do you wish to eat more of it?"

"I'd rather sample what else you've got," Chiana answers, dark eyes bright. She loves discovering new things, after all, and sets the curry down before turning her smile on Strange, hips swaying the way they usually do. "Anything else you need me to taste?"

"Well, there was a caramel cookie that I think might be starting to absorb the flavour of the mint pie beside it," he says, thinking that his magic may be leaking, so to speak, and infecting everything around it.

Chiana doesn't really know what mint is, although she's learned about caramel - and she loves it. She grins at Strange. "Point me to it."

He directs her to the table that seems to be wafting a strange light green aura around it, like a magical thing that wants to be known. It's not supposed to be doing that, is his first critical thought. "There we are. It should taste fine. Maybe a little too flavourful."

Chiana bit into the cookie, then ate the rest of it enthusiastically. "Crank it," she says, on the same tone one might say an incredulous 'shut up', "it's great!"

"What's that mean?" Strange asks, wishing for a quill and parchment in order to write down some of the oddities that Chiana is saying. "Crank...? Does it have a particular meaning that I should be using it in context with?"

Chiana is surprised by the question; do his translator microbes not work correctly? "You crank things, with a screwdriver?" she offers, then shrugs. "Or in that case, you stop saying ridiculous things."