"I think I generally understand what you meant. I don't know if there is a word for it, though, language is so..." she makes a face. "Insufficient."

"In comparison with what?"

"Everything you could possibly want to say! There are no words for smells besides comparing them to things, there aren't nearly enough words for colors or emotions..."

"And how do you propose to fix this?"

"Invent better telepathy."

"Any ideas about how?"

"A handful. Nothing I've gotten to the point of testing, yet."

"Well, I volunteer in advance, whenever you have something to test."

"Thanks! I probably would've started with my sister, but this way I don't need to be anywhere near as sure of fixing the pain on both ends part before I start testing."

"I'm handy to have around, that way."

"I'd recommend you to some other people but I don't know that anyone else is doing a project where that particular talent would make you an especially good test subject."

"And I'm going to be too busy learning magic. I'm still a bit, hmm... uncertain of how to apply my knowledge."

"It's not obvious to me where my explanation was lacking. Could you describe the gap?"

"Mm. I have the sensation of how to do magic," he holds up a hand as though presenting this commodity for inspection, "and the theory of how magic is done," he holds up the other hand, "and what I'm missing is in between. Application. Practical knowledge. You flew us to this roof; how do you fly? You said you can heal; how do you heal? What's the sort of thing someone does when they're just starting out, and how do they do it?"

"Um...one starting exercise is various forms of minor telekinesis. How d'you heal in which system? You...command the body to be well, or persuade it, or push it, in as much detail possible. I'm going to need more specific examples to get more specific."

"Okay, minor telekinesis. Explain me minor telekinesis, please, in as much detail as language permits."

"Uh, okay." She floats one of the smaller of their testing rocks back out of the garden and into the palm of her hand. "Which do you want to start with?"

"Any. Effort, how about."

"Focus on the rock. Want it to go up, push on it going up with your mind, then--take what Atennesi Cohen showed you about how Effort magic works, and apply one to the other."

Milan stares down the rock.

And slowly...but surely...the rock rises.

Hm.

Milan continues staring down the rock, and turns up to his full mental capacity.

It all but jumps out of her hand.

"Hm," he says aloud, turning down to twice baseline and instructing the rock to hover. "Okay. How about the other two? Actually, what happens if you use multiple branches of magic at once?"

"Usually it's more than twice as hard to focus because you have to not let the one distract you from the other for the given amounts of attention you're alotting each but it's basically like if you had two somewhat weaker mages each trying one on the same thing."