"Maybe a sorcerer could help you figure it out. Maybe helping magical girls figure out how do I shot web could be a whole specialization of sorcery."

"What existing specialties does it have?"

"Gosh, loads. Sorcery's really all-purpose, you get agricultural sorcerers and all different kinds of medical sorcerers and sorcerers who specialize in wards...there are probably fewer specializations than there are in, say, science in general, if only because there are fewer sorcerers than scientists, but I certainly couldn't count them all. I apologize if that's an unhelpful answer, I can try to be more specific, I just don't promise to be comprehensive."

"Why aren't there more sorcerers?"

"I think I mentioned becoming one hurts like hell? And it's not as--institutionalized, there are colleges that have sorcery programs but they're kind of rare, for most of history what you've had is sorcerers taking on apprentices and then once you're not an apprentice anymore you mostly learn by trading with other sorcerers for knowledge."

"Do a lot of people become multiple kinds of magic?"

"Not in terms of absolute numbers, but--for any given kind of magic user, the per capita number of other kinds of magic user is higher than the absolute per capita number of other kinds of magic user."

"Sorcery sounds cool."

"I can see if I can find one of--Dad's colleague's or something who'll sorcerer you, if you want."

"I'd want to know more about it before deciding for sure but it sounds versatile enough that it might be better than magical girling at compensating for some of my artifacts?"

"Plausible."

"Do you both know sign or was it just one of you, how does that thing where you become one person work."

"...We both know some sign, I'm better at it, Lady Ironheart knows everything that either of us knows. Why?"

"I could see - her - for a sec, when she signed."

"...Oh."

She unhugs enough to get enough room and signs thank you again.

"Ee!"

She giggles, and starts running through her mental vocabulary for every sign that involves more than just hands. This includes "sleep" and "foot" (pointing to one's foot) among other highly irrelevant things, and "me," which is arguably relevant. And gives Annie a glimpse of her chest, not that she was quite thinking of that...

Edie is visually fascinating!

Annie's fascination is endearing!

"I wonder if the thing works on conlangs? I mean, sign language is sort of a conlang, I think, but people actually use it...I wonder if I could make up a formalized interpretive dance thing that involved the whole body at once..."

"I have no idea, if I tried to dance a meaning I'd probably just fall over so I can't check it that way."

"I know, like, two sentences of Elvish, we could check if it works on conlangs in general."

"Sure."

"Á colë nin Silmarillë Moringoþo mahalmallo. Á retë Taniquetildenna ar á mapa Manweva unduhampë."

"Nothing. Guess it doesn't work on conlangs, or on that one for some reason."

"...Why did you even memorize those two sentences?"