The costs aren't quite mathematically precise, but someone with a particular focus in her magic can do that thing pretty casually while another puella magi, even one with stronger magic otherwise, would have to ration it.

"Can you give us examples of wishes you've granted in the past? Ghyslaine's, for example?"

I can't, no. No suggestions.

"But - hmm - if I wish for a power directly, do I get it cheaper for everyday use than if I'd wished for something that gave me an affinity for that power on the side?"

Probably! It depends on the exact details, though.

"Like the wording? How much does it depend on the wording?"

Mm, some, but only a little. If you clearly mean one interpretation of your words and not another that will matter. But you can't get one thing by pretending you're wishing entirely for another.

"Okay. So my next question is, what happens if someone steals a girl's gem? Can they be broken? What happens if they are?"

You can't really steal a soul gem from a puella magi. Puella magi are their soul gems. But if they get more than a hundred meters away from their bodies they can't control them anymore. If a soul gem breaks the puella magi dies.

"That's promising."

"Can a soul gem away from the body still do magic? And does this mean that if the body dies the puella magi doesn't?"

No, and not necessarily.

"'Not necessarily'...? So, what, if your body dies but your gem is fine then you're just... unconscious or sensory-deprived, totally unable to do things, until something happens to your gem or you get a new body somehow?"

Right. It would be impossible to fight witches in that state, which puella magi do need to do, but someone else could help a puella magi who didn't have a body, if they had enough magic.

"...How needful is this need? Even if you're not doing any magic...?"

Puella magi are always doing at least a little bit of magic to operate their bodies. I've never seen a soul gem that had no body to operate spend very long like that.

"That does sound like a prime way to get killed, I guess..."

Other puella magi usually finish the job if one's soul gem is the only thing left.

"Speaking of near death situations, if I am about to die, and am perhaps unconscious or unable to speak, can I set up a wish that will go off for me in that situation?"

Sometimes girls who are about to die accept contracts but they have always been able to speak and I didn't meet them in advance. I think it would work if you couldn't talk but it might not work if you were unconscious. I can try, though, if you know your wish for that situation.

"I'm working on it." Bella consults her list, checks a couple things off, notes her answers - "To what extent can we compensate for lower magical power by doing all our own detail work? Like, I can't cure cancer, but if I made a - healing themed wish, and then spent a lot of time in oncology wards, I could make a bit of a dent. Is there anything in between I could do by being more specific or handling some of the implementation by hand...?"

Not exactly. Your wish is an effect you get, not a setup for you to do something else. It would be easier to cure everyone who has cancer right now than to make it so no one could ever get it again, or to cure a specific kind, but that isn't quite what you seem to be saying.

"Okay. The cancer angle is... still on the table but less so. Is 'luck' a thing your magic can play with? Is this magic or all very sophisticated science?"

Luck is not as much an effect you get as a lot of effects you would need to keep getting. Once you've made your wish you will be able to do things like affect dice, if you're close enough, but only physically. I use a combination of magic and science, but the wishes in particular are almost all magic and so is everything puella magi can do.

"What do you use science to do?"