"We could see if one of Norma's really sharp blades do the same thing. Maybe ask Eva to cut the stuff."

"Yeah," he says. "Probably a good idea."

"I have a few pretty sharp blades, yes," she says when asked, still looking amused at all of this. "But what, pray tell, will you use it for?"

"We're curious if they interact with these blocks like my teeth and nails – which don't actually even interact wholly like each other – or if my teeth and nails interact with different materials weirdly because demon magic. Basically."

"I see." She finds a very sharp-looking blade and says, "This is not the sharpest non-magical thing I have, but close enough. Be careful with it, it could slice your thumb off."

Theo nods and takes it from her. "Thanks."

"Also maybe Eva could be the one to cut since she's stronger?"

Eva turns to face them at this, then says, "I'm up for that?"

"Awesome."

He offers her the blocks of wood, brick, iron, and concrete.

She takes them!

Theo also offers her the sword.

So she puts the blocks down in a convenient place outside and then comes back to grab the sword. "So I'm just, what, slicing through these and trying to work out how they compare to each other?"

"Yep. See just how magical Theo's teeth are."

So she does!

The easiest one to cut is wood, followed by iron and brick in that order but pretty similar altogether, and finally concrete.

She reports the results! Also checks the blade over to make sure it's okay – oops.

It's a little bit damaged.

"So your teeth obey the laws of physics—kinda—but your nails don't."

Eva goes to sort-of-apologize to Norma for the thing that they just asked her to do and also to hand the sword back.

"Apparently, yeah. I would expect, if anything, it to be the other way round since my nails are probably sharper than my teeth and so more like the sword."

Norma says it's fine and that Eva will destroy many more things in the future, it's her job.

"But they aren't sharper because they're made of sharper material, they're sharper 'cause of magic, so."

"Yeah, probably, but my teeth are probably like that too." Shrug. "Anyway, important experimental results that mean that what I predicted doesn't matter anymore, cool."

"What you predicted?"

"… Sharp teeth and nails act like other sharp materials?"

"Oh, right, yes, your magical properties behave in wholly unintuitive ways."