"Appearing somewhere you couldn't survive would be more like an accidental death than murder..."

"Not know word death," she says. "And magic away from murder."

"Ah."

"Would you like a dictionary," says Cadra, "or would that be too much too fast - I don't know if you're having to remember this in a more or less Amentan way or if you have magic for it -"

"Not know Amentan learn. Not magic. Dictionary not bad."

Cadra calls up a dictionary on her everything and shows Odette how to type and scroll through it.

Oooh. And: "Illia want understand electric."

"- Senator -"

"Mine has sensitive materials, Cadra."

"Well." She can navigate away from the dictionary to an explanation of electricity.

"Understand electric--need words--"

Odette illusions a diagram of electrons jumping between atoms. "Illia understand electric work, understand magnets, want understand electric make rectangle book and train."

"- I'm afraid neither of us is competent to teach electrician school..."

Sigh. "Understand."

"The, uh, rectangle book, is called a pocket everything."

"Oh, right."

"The thing we'd most like to be able to do," says the senator, "is travel to other planets, empty ones, and send people to live there. Is that something magic could help with?"

"...Probably? Why want?"

"Amenta is very crowded," he says.

"Oh. Magic..." she trails off. "Magic now." She holds her hands a certain distance apart. "Magic later." She brings her hands farther apart.

"Your magic is going to get - bigger -?"

Nod nod.

"Over how long - days months years -"

She makes a wobbly gesture. "Do not-bigger magic, magic gets bigger years, do bigger magic, magic gets bigger months."

"What sorts of things would be good for growing your magic?"

"Do magic."

"Yes, but what sorts of magic are best to do for it?"

"...Bigger magic?"