  We examine a 200 ks XMM-Newton observation of the narrow-line Seyfert 1
galaxy Mrk 493. The active galaxy was half as bright as in a previous 2003
snapshot observation and the current lower flux enables a study of the putative
reflection component in detail. We determine the characteristics of the 2015
X-ray continuum by first analyzing the short-term variability using
model-independent techniques. We then continue with a time-resolve analysis
including spectral fitting and modelling the fractional variability. We
determine that the variability arises from changes in the amount of primary
flux striking the accretion disk, which induces changes in the ionization
parameter and flux of the blurred reflection component. The observations seem
consistent with the picture that the primary source is of roughly constant
brightness and that variations arise from changes in the degree of light
bending happening in the vicinity of the supermassive black hole.
