"Well, yes, in the sense that anything can be improved by adding 'and also May rules the world' to it."

"So I'll be quasi-Evil Overlady, you be the shadowy yet extremely competent vizier, Kanimir can be the court magician..." she thinks about this. "Iunno, probably easier if we just make you empress, I feel like you'd rock a crown way better than shadowy vizier robes. Okay, you be Empress, I'll be a Science Advisor on the grounds that I'm totally going to get a doctorate in biology when I grow up, see if I don't, Kanimir can be court magician slash Emperor Consort, and Jaromira can be the court poet if you can find a use for one, she's actually really good."

"I like plans in which I wear a crown."

"You would so totally rock a crown. Guys, back me up on this."

"Is there any particular point? She already agrees with you."

"It's true, though," Kanimir says thoughtfully. "And it should have a centerpiece jewel the same color as your scales."

"Lovely. Blue diamond? Sapphire? I don't know my gemstones well enough to have other guesses."

"Opals come in some lovely blues."

"Ooh."

"...You know, is there any particular reason you guys couldn't, like, terraform Mars with magic, take a buncha immigrants from Earth and actually start a kingdom or empire or whatever?"

"We might eventually run into fundamental limitations on magic of some kind. Or die. Other than that, no."

"Considering what we know to be possible I would be surprised if the fundamental limitations of magic prevented us from terraforming Mars. And we were already planning to learn to teleport."

"We probably cannot cast spells on Mars from here, and if I'm going to teleport to Mars I need a space suit, which would be kind of hard to get off the shelf, or a breathing spell, which would be kind of nerve-wracking to test."

"I bet you could magic a space suit kind of thing. And test it underwater."

"Mars and underwater are two very different environments and have very different sorts of possible help available. I'm not saying I will never set foot on Mars, I'm saying it's slightly complicated."

"Fair enough. And meanwhile you are going to do a ton of magic and I'm going to learn slightly less magic on account of I'm also totally going to get a doctorate in biology and I will totally be your Magic Science consultant. A Magic Science consultant. You are probably also going to need other fields of Science consulted."

"Quite likely. Knowing what we are doing: important."

"Especially when things go boom when you do not."

"I'm not sure explosions in particular are the hazard."

"Metaphorical boom. Actually real boom would probably be more fun than being a completely different species and/or dead."

"Tangent, I'm pretty sure the species differences are incomplete, considering that all kinds of critters and also humans can all interbreed if they want to."

"...I'm going to be a biologist. Do you think it would be horribly insensitive to try to study the various kinds of critters on that level?"

"...Define 'study'."

"Probably 'take genetic samples and analyze differences between various sorts of critters and humans.' But also possibly things like--I'm a firebird, I have some remarkable visual similarities to a peacock aside from mostly being in reds and oranges, I could see if I'm put together like a peacock too."

"Sounds fine as long as you get standard anthropology ethics right instead of settling for standard zoology."