Mints are also the only true duplicate power I've ever seen. That might have something to do with it. Maybe there's only one way to be a mint.

Well, that goes back to what interpreting powers is like.

This is a bad way to put it, but I can't think of any better ones: The way a power 'looks' always has some qualities that make me think of things that are like how the power works. The little bird's power looks strong and solid and, I don't know, outward? It just looks like the kind of thing that's for protecting people. And Kolya's power looks shy and like it wants to be hiding behind something at all times. My power has an outwardness to it, too, but it's not exactly the same outwardness. And it's kind of angular and all-over-the-place, like sugar crystals. (Trying to describe powers in terms of the regular senses is usually doomed to failure, but once in a while I get good analogies referencing shape or size. A certain someone's is exactly person-sized, for example, although that has nothing to do with the size it appears to have in the physical world, because all powers are also the shape and size of the people who have them. But on a different level, they meaningfully aren't. Confused yet?)

So: the mint power 'looks' like a thing that turns pain into wishes.

I repeat: most fucked up power ever.

Maybe it's a conspiracy and the native mint does it differently but only sells this kind of minting to limit others' power! Wait, that's technically not a conspiracy, it only calls for one person. But you know what I mean.

I am a little confused, but maybe not as confused as you fear? I understand you're trying to talk about an extra sense with a language designed around its absence.

What else do you know about the wishes? What does "complexity" or "size" mean in terms of whether a wish needs one kind of coin or another? Is there any reason for people to be associated with the colors they are or does that seem random?

I don't know a lot about the wishes. And like I said, I haven't exactly seen enough colour combinations to have a good theory. That one mint didn't particularly seem like a sea-green person or anything.

I don't really know what complexity or size mean other than the obvious. Well, I guess "the obvious" isn't necessarily all that obvious. Bigger-and-more-complicated wishes are wishes that accomplish more things, or more of a thing. If I'd wanted to, I don't know, fix a broken arm as well as my clicky jaw, that might have taken a coin with one more side. Or even a broken arm instead of my clicky jaw. But I don't have any more than the vaguest possible sense of how the size of a wish actually relates to the number of sides it needs. For that matter, I don't know how many sides a coin can have. Maybe it stops at five, or maybe it keeps going up indefinitely and the most powerful coins just look like circles.

Have you met Bridget before? It occurs to me that I have no idea - I quizzed her extensively and she always had explanations for how she knew everything, she never said "Lazarus told me that I could do X" or anything. It just seems like you could develop a lot more usefulness if you had more of a sample size to look at properly, and she might not object, though I'd have to ask.

I dunno. What do you do with your time, anyway, nonbird, since you don't run Hogwarts?

Bridget's the physicist, isn't she? Dr. Banner? I've seen her, but not talked to her extensively. Her power is interesting. You'd think it would look like the little bird's, but it doesn't at all, even though there's some overlap in effect.

I have a boring nonmagical job where I do boring nonmagical things. I also like wandering around watching strangers do things. I'm told this is a creepy hobby.

Yes, she's a physicist. That's funny that her power doesn't resemble little bird's - can you describe the differences via poorly-suited metaphor in uncooperative words, please?

Boring nonmagical job sounds like the worst thing. In particular, it sounds boring.

I think people-watching is a thing. I mean, there's a word for it. And it makes sense in your case.

[I bet he's cute,] Alice says cheerfully.

> can you describe the differences via poorly-suited metaphor in uncooperative words, please?

Oh, yes, that's my favourite. :P

They do the same thing, or part of the same thing, but they do it in very different ways. The little bird's power is very outward, like I said; it goes outward from her to the person she's protecting and then looks outward again to guard them. Bridget's power is very, very inward. It works on her, not on the world around her. And it's big and small at the same time, like there's really three times as much Bridget as the world gets to see, trying to press itself down into just slightly less space than she nominally occupies. (Powers looking a little smaller than their people isn't unique—Kolya's does it too—but I've never seen one be simultaneously bigger like that.)

Bridget's power just working on her makes sense to me. She was kind enough to let me try to break her wrist. It didn't go. Nothing happened to me, her wrist just wasn't a breakable thing. I'd be vaguely curious what would happen if I made an attempt at attacking the little bird's niece - I imagine her wrist wouldn't break either, but it might not-break in an interestingly different way.

How long have you known all these various magical people?

Bella considers this. [I suppose that given sufficient magic making the excess complications of diseases and babies not-a-problem, the only thing that has me worried is that someone else will do their equivalent of calling you a freak, and then I have to share not just my boyfriend but also my pet masochist, and then I have to keep that person happy or run the risk of turning them into my archenemy and not having my advantage. But that could happen without sexy experiments, too, perhaps just as easily considering the timeline with you and me. So it makes more sense to focus on mitigating the possibility that I will wind up sharing you with an archenemy than just naively banning sinister experimentation with magic-detectors who may or may not be cute and expecting that to solve the quandary.]

If I were you, I wouldn't try it.

I've known these various magical people various amounts of time! Kolya the longest, the little bird next.

Why not? It wouldn't work any more than it did on Bridget. And I'd ask first. Ethical experimental procedures, and all. I don't know little bird's niece, of course, but if I met her why not inquire?

Sure, but when did you meet Kolya?

[So... you're pretty sure that I win in any of various contests between me and miscellaneous others you could fall in love with?] Bella asks. [Just because I showed up first or what? How do you know? I think you and I are both already protected against various direct attacks I'd try if I were my nemesis, but not against just plain mind-changing...]

I just don't think it would be a good idea.

Years and years ago, why?

But why do you think that?

I'm curious about correlations between how long you've known someone and how much you know about their power. And, there seems to be this whole network of magic people that I just stumbled across and I want to know how long it's existed.

[Okay,] says a somewhat confused Alice, [so what the hell exactly do you expect me to do about this hypothetical person who I haven't met yet and have no idea what they're like?]

[I don't have any expectations for you about that, at the moment. I expect to be paranoid and run at an extra half-a-brain so I can do other things while I worry.]

[Well, that sounds like the opposite of fun.]

Well, I'm a lot more familiar with Kolya's power than anyone else's because I've been living with him for (I just checked) two years. It's not how long I've known them that matters, really, it's how well I know them.

Is a collection of loosely acquainted people a network?

Sure it is. It's not a club or a political party or even a circle of friends, but it's certainly a network.

Have you met little bird's niece?