"It is difficult to tell 'fiendishly difficult' from 'truly impossible'."

"How come?"

"Because--it's a difference between 'I have not found the solution because I have yet to explore the correct concepts' and 'I have not found the solution because it doesn't exist'."

"But there's not definitely anything that's just - out of scope? That's amazing."

"--I would be very surprised if it were possible to edit the way the magic works," he says after a moment's reflection.

She giggles.

He blinks as though confused for a moment, and then says "I'm uncertain what was amusing about that remark."

"- it wasn't humorous it was just - encouraging?"

"Ah, I see."

"Ii don't know for sure that my magic system is particularly limited but it seems structurally likely with the elemental basis."

Nod. "It does seem inconvenient."

"A bit."

"Well. Now you have access to this one."

"Are you sure it'll work for me?"

"--I suppose not. I would expect it to but I suppose I've never met someone from your world before."

"Yeah, that's my concern. What's the fastest way to check?" Apple is gone. She looks in the fridge, approximately recognizes grapes, takes a bunch.

"I have a ritual that should only take half an hour."

"It takes some doing to scrunch it down into single nonsense words, huh?"

"Rather, yes."

"How does that work?" Grapes grapes grapes.

"You perform a ritual until you're sufficiently familiar with its moving parts, and then replace a coherent subset of the moving parts with a gesture or word, and repeat the process ad nauseam."

"What does moving parts mean in the context of a magic ritual?"

"Specific steps, for the most part, although also physical implements involved."

"Can you give an example?"

"What kind of example specifically?"