"… What in particular?"

"That it responds to how it's been used before. That makes it sound like it's got a mind of its own."

"… Not really? I mean– it's not that it responds to how it's been used before, like, if you try to blind a bunch of people, people aren't gonna trust you with it, and so they'll probably try to snuff any lumen you try to create? But then you are presumably trying not to let the lumen be snuffed, since you're trying to use it, and it results in… weak stuff?"

"Oh, you can interfere with each other's?"

"Yyyeah, forgot to mention that I guess? Sorry. You have more control over stuff you make, though."

"What if nobody around knows how you've used lumen in the past?"

He shrugs. "Then presumably you can do it just as strongly?"

"Presumably? You don't know?"

"I– no? I don't know that people have actually tested it much, it's just… there? But it's hardly like it'd have a mind, because it's, you know, lumen? Well, you don't know, but. It's not a person or anything, it's just– lumen, and that's not a sufficient explanation, ugh."

"It's kinda not," she agrees.

"I don't have a better one," he says. "I mean, I'd offer to test it, but I'd really rather not– abuse it like that?"

"That's reasonable."

"You actually can't get it to the point where it'd blind people, by the way. It can get quite bright, but it doesn't actually do damage, and it's intangible so it's not really useful for trying to harm people anyway." He makes the sphere move about a bit and seems to consider. "… Might work as a distraction, though."

"Yeah, probably. It'd work for conveying orders too."

"Yeah. But you could do that with fairylights anyway."

"If I were under an order not to do sorcery, say, lumen would get around that, but it's an edge case."

He nods. "So it'd be useful if you could do it, but you're pretty sure you can't."

"Yep."

He frowns. "Have you actually tried doing it? I mean, I'd expect you to know by now if you could do it, on account of being more than sixty, but maybe people don't ever try it if they don't see it when they're kids, or something? That seems, for some reason, more likely than that you actually can't do it – which is weird by itself, but still."

"Well, how would I go about trying?"

"Uh." He frowns again and looks at the blob that he still has hovering.

"… You sort of pick a space in midair and you, uh, try to grab it? Mentally? Then put a blob of lumen there. Which is– difficult to describe," he sighs. "Um, like, moving my arm and thinking about moving my arm, they're different in a very specific way, but then you can go sort of halfway between them? On the edge of moving your arm? You might be able to do the same with lumen, think about making it and then– try to turn it into an action and then do it to the space you mentally grabbed?"

Ugh.

...Promise does her best to follow these instructions.

Nothing happens. She might notice that the spot she was focusing on feels a little more 'grabbable' now, though, less slippery.

Purple waits patiently.

"...I think I felt something? Maybe? I could be imagining it."

She probably is imagining it. How easily grabbable a bit of space in air is? Not exactly the easiest thing to keep track of.

"Felt– what, any idea?"