There is a faint hollering sound from overhead. It gets suddenly louder as the skylight irises open like a science-fictional door and two people drop through it, one a human and one an oddly glowing and shadowed person with a sort of wing-outline she seems to be using to slow their fall. They collapse on his carpet.

--This is surprising. For a variety of reasons. He rises and walks over to peer at them, murmuring under his breath.

The human looks at him warily. She's squeezing glowyshadowperson's hand. She says something in a very foreign language.

Hmm.

He murmurs something else under his breath, and then says, "Excuse me, who are you?"

"I'm Maurabel and this is Penumbra. Sorry about your skylight. I can fix it."

"The skylight is of relatively minor consequence; it can be repaired easily. What is Penumbra and why are the two of you here?"

"Penumbra is her name and also what she is. We're - exploring."

"Exploring for a purpose or for the pure joy of the frontier? What are the characteristics of a Penumbra?"

"...to see what was here. She's a kind of combined Shadow/Shine elemental."

"What is an elemental?"

"A kind of person..."

"Yes, obviously. Am I mistaken in assuming she is inherently magical in some way? She certainly seems to be."

"She is, but so are a lot of humans."

"She is inherently magical in a way I am not currently familiar with, and I am familiar with a great many kinds of magic."

"Elementals have a lot of one or two elements of magic and mage humans have some of three or more."

"And one of yours overlaps with one of hers? --I have a magic sense active."

"...yeah, I don't have any Shadow but I have some Shine."

"What are the elements?"

"Glass lightning water earth wood shine fire adamant stone air ice shadow."

"Do you have any idea why those are the elements?"

"...no."

"Oh well. Do you know whether anyone else does?"

"I don't think they do."

"Oh well. How does using magic work?"

"What do you mean exactly?"