"I imagine they'd be really latent. Everything you've mentioned seems to be the kind of thing you'd notice, right? So I doubt there'd be much point, but if he likes talking people's ears off about magic, I have a redundant ear handy. Can you give out his number or do you have to ask first?"

"How about I give him yours?" she suggests.

"Does his power work over the phone? I have this mental image of picking up while my roommate's around, and then flailing around and having to explain it if he says I have something," says Bella, chuckling softly. She's backed into a bit of a corner, but there's no way the personality she was revealing would pass up a chance to talk to any magic person at this point. Sigh.

"Not as far as I know," says Chris, "but I haven't asked."

"Well, what conditions make him work in person? Does he have to be near you, or able to see you? Has he identified any celebrities as having magic, by watching them on TV?" Bella suggests.

"I think you're going to have to ask him those. He will probably jump up and down with glee."

"How close to your table at the coffee shop was he before he formed the visible intention to sit with you?" Bella tries.

"It's been a while, but as far as I can recall, by the time I noticed him he was already headed my way. He might even have come into the coffee shop specifically to talk to me; I didn't get around to asking. When I asked him why he wanted to know if I believed in magic, he said something along the lines of 'well, I noticed you have some'."

Bella decides to try layering another hex's worth of oomph to her defense against magical spying. It goes, so it must have done something, but a third hex refuses to follow it, so that must be all she could do. "Okay. I think he's clearly going to be my new best friend, if he likes talking magic as much as you say, so go ahead and give him my number."

"Will do," Chris says cheerfully.

"But in the meantime," says Bella. "I bet you can tell me more about your power, even if you inexplicably haven't quizzed all your friends on theirs. Can you do more than one person at once? How do you know it protects against any given thing - have you tested it or do you 'just know'? Maybe it's an anti-obsessing-over-the-safety-of-loved-ones power more than a genuine protection power, if it hasn't much been tested."

"It got my sister out of trouble a time or two. And then my niece, when she was born. And it definitely can't cover more than one person at once."

"What kind of trouble? You mentioned mind control; is someone with a mind control power running around attacking people?"

"Mind control was a hypothetical example," Chris assures her. "I can tell you that whoever I'm protecting is at least as resilient as Bridget, plus immune to all the hostile magic we can think of. I could also tell you how we found that out, but I'm not going to give away all my secrets."

"Why not?" Bella asks innocently.

"Because I barely know you?" she suggests.

"Maybe I can think of something you didn't and then you can make sure that's covered too," Bella suggests.

"My confidence in your trustworthiness does not go up when you tell me you want to know so you can find my potential weaknesses."

"That was an example of how I could be helpful," Bella says peevishly. "The 'and then you can make sure that's covered' part did imply so. Oh well. Does it take effort, to keep it up? Concentration?"

"Nope," says Chris. "I can always tell who it's pointed at, though. A little like wearing a watch - it's not in your face all the time, but it's there every time you want to check it and you'd notice if it went away."

"Can you have it attached to nobody? You made it sound like it started on your sister and moved to your niece and is just on all the time. Can you use it on yourself?"

"I can have it attached to nobody, but I don't like to," she says. "It feels weird. Like trying to wear your watch as a hat. And no, I can't use it on myself."

"How much is this 'feeling' actually, you know, a feeling, like if something were actually buckled to your arm, and how much is that just the only way you have to talk about it?" Bella asks.

"It's not a physical sensation, if that's what you mean. It's kind of like an extra sense."

"I don't suppose it ever senses any other things?"