"Whoa, that is a rush," breathes Bella.

"Seriously!" says Brilliance.

"How much mana does it take to make brand new sand out of nowhere? Are we going to - experience whatever happens when one runs out of mana, if I try to make an entire potato?"

"New sand didn't take that much," says Brilliance. "We're still way above half. I'm not actually sure about the potato."

"So maybe I should try - say, a kernel of corn first? Is it a size thing or a complexity thing, would filling a bowl with sugar be easier because it's molecularly pretty simple? I think?"

"I'm not totally sure," he says. "I think that once you've got the hang of doing one of something, scaling it up to a bunch doesn't take nearly as much mana. But I'm not sure how much the size of the first thing factors into it."

"...So, maybe a single sugar crystal."

"Try it and see!"

Bella commands a sugar crystal to exist just like she did the sand.

This one is a somewhat harder to envision all at once. But the conjuration is successful.

"How're we on mana?" Pause. "Can we just make me able to directly sense that or do I have to pester you every time I want to know?"

"You have to pester me," he says apologetically. "You might get a sense for it yourself someday, or you might not, I'm not really sure. Anyway, we're still above half, but we're getting there."

"Maybe better to save the kernel of corn for another time, then?"

"Yeah, maybe."

"Mkay." Bella kicks off the ground again. "God I love flying."

Brilliance laughs.

Zoom! Zoooooooom! Zoom.

"Wheeeeeee!"

"How much fun can it be when you're a staff?" asks Bella, doing a barrel roll. "Like, I'm mostly getting - wind and vestibular stuff - do you get that?"

"I get - different stuff," he says.

"Indescribable device stuff?"

"I guess," he snorts.

"Oh well." Zoom!

Whee.

Eventually Bella yawns. "I have no idea what time it is on the west coast of North America, but it's probably about time I went home to bed, I'm probably keeping Lexi up," she sighs, coming in for a landing on the mixed-up sand; they've flown well past her sorted rainbow and her disks and her sandcastle.