Eventually they get back to Theo's place, and Tyler walks in through the door, and then he proceeds to stand at the edge of the room.
It seems like he's doing this a lot right now.
He sighs.
"Yeah," agrees Tyler. "And it was definitely harder for me to do it than it was for him."
"Well. I don't know about the others, but it's not like I have a bedtime or anywhere I need to get back to, so I'm up for that."
"Mum was expecting me back at some point but I can just text her to say I decided to stay over? Might want to get a few things, though."
"Probably the sleepover bit is nonmagical unless we try to put people to sleep with it – ooh, if it can reduce need for sleep then I really want that – but yeah, magic!"
"There's a card that makes people sleep, I think? But dunno about keeping them up, and if my untimely amount of tiredness is anything to go by maybe this might be an oxymoron or something."
"There is indeed a card that makes people sleep!" says Maya. "Unless 'The Sleep' is poorly named, which I suppose is possible."
"It's possible that the amount of energy required to reduce the amount of sleep someone needs is less than the amount of energy they get back, or whatever if it's not a neat measurable amount, or that a permanent change can be done? But yeah, making yourself less tired probably doesn't work as you want."
"Maybe we can borrow wakefulness from the future, reducing need for sleep now to sleep more in the future, also known as 'staying up late.'"
"But hopefully with fewer side effects such as 'reduced concentration' and 'feeling tired'."
"Symbols!" says Maya. "Probably writing something like 'wind' on a piece of paper, or the Chinese symbol for it or something, then holding it and trying the same thing, see if it varies in how long it lasts for."
So Willow uses her drawing skills to draw five copies of the Chinese symbol for 'wind,' and five copies of the word 'wind' in her best calligraphy.
Then Theo asks permission and takes one, saying the shortest phrase they used again.
… And since Theo took a copy of the Chinese character, Tyler takes a copy of the English word and tries that instead.