"Using chakra to do techniques uses it up, yeah. There's sort of - a feeling. Initially you just start feeling tired, like you were working out a lot, but as you practice you can get a better gauge for how much you have left exactly. It does regenerate, usually through eating and sleeping.

"It can be used internally, typically to enhance speed and muscle strength - that uses it up, too, unfortunately. 

"Medics can alleviate the symptoms of chakra exhaustion, but can't usually loan someone chakra. It's theoretically possible, just requires a lot of control, or a very unoffensive chakra type - chakra transfusions are finicky, and people's coils usually try to reject foreign chakra."

"Ah, are there different types?"

"There aren't really distinct categories as far as we know, unless you count affinity, but people's chakra has different qualities - mostly thanks to its balance of yin and yang chakra. Yin relates to spiritual energy, yang to physical energy."

"Affinity?

Do the qualities affect what they might be better at doing?"

"Elemental affinity," she clarifies, "Most people have an easier time learning techniques from one of the elemental types - there're five: fire, wind, lightning, earth, and water. I have a fire affinity, so fire techniques are easy for me."

"Somewhat? It's more - if you exercise your mind a lot, you develop larger yin reserves, and yin chakra is used in illusions, which are entirely mental techniques. If you exercise your body a lot, you develop larger yang reserves, and yang chakra is used in physical techniques. Most other techniques use a mixture of both types."

"Typically, people who lean yang have more chakra and poorer control, while people who lean yin have less chakra and better control, but that doesn't always bear out. Philosophies differ on whether it's better to maintain a balance of yin and yang chakra or to specialize in one."

"Ah, I see.

How do the elemental types sort?

And one's reserves can be increased, then? How quickly? Is there an upper limit? Do people tend to start with varying amounts?"

"Fire beats wind usually - wind makes it stronger, they synergize nicely - and wind beats lightning. Lightning beats earth, which beats water, which in turn beats fire. Assuming equally strong techniques, of course, you can always overpower something."

"Reserves can be increased! If there's an actual upper limit, we haven't noticed it, but there's often a practical upper limit in how much you can train. People do start with varying amounts. How quickly you can increase it depends on how much time you spend training, your age, how effectively you train, and some personal factors, but, hm... I was able to double my capacity over the course of a year, doing nothing but training, and I was born with a fairly high capacity."

"Ah, I intended to ask what determines what element a technique belongs to. Though that is also interesting." She wonders if they have a more education version of the children's game based on a similar conceit.

My compliments, that is impressive.

Age?" 

"What they use? Most techniques aren't elemental. If they use water, they're water techniques. Though it's incredibly difficult to use two or more elements in the same technique if you don't have a bloodline for it, and bloodlines do allow new elements from combining two or three others. Like, wood manipulation is water and earth."

"Ah, thanks..." she says, feeling awkward over the compliment. "Anyways, the older you are, the easier it is to increase your capacity. There's a fairly dramatic improvement from childhood to puberty, then things improve more slowly after that."

She nods. "What are the other element combinations?

You mentioned the non-nobility earlier; how long does your nobility tend to live?"

"Hm... Off the top of my head: ice, explosion, steam, lava, and magnet. There's also dust - which uses three different elements - and a bunch of others I'm forgetting."

"Around sixty, seventy years? Assuming no one assassinates them, or they don't fall in battle. Which is usually what happens."

She shrugs. "Anyways, do you want to go find somewhere to stay while you're here?"

"Steam is - fire and air? What are the others?

What causes such a large difference, do you know?

Yes, thank you."

"Ice - water and wind, explosion - earth and lightning, lava - fire and earth, magnet - I'm not sure."

"Nobles tend to have physicians and eat better, is I think a lot of it."

"C'mon, this way."

She leads Lee down another set of hallways, to one long and branched hallway with rough-hewn doors leading off of it. She walks to the end of the hallway, where there's a blank space, says, "Looks like there's no rooms readily available," and then forms a few quick handsigns and slams her palms against the rock. A room opens up, then slowly forms rough recesses - probably shelves and in-wall seating.

"You'll have to ask the store rooms for a door, bedding, table, and floor mats," she says apologetically. "We really should have more rooms prepared, I'll have to talk to the hall coordinator about that. I'll also get one of the sealing apprentices down here to add some lighting and heat, plus mark your room."

Yes that would rather do it. 

"Your power is very impressive." It is. She sees no reason to conceal this from the rest of her body language either. "And you are a very kind host."

Mark? And, how would I navigate stores?"

"Um, thanks."

"The mark will say that your room's occupied, and give it a unique number so you can find it again. Optionally you can have it say your name, too, but a lot of people want to keep where they sleep not common knowledge, so that's not required."

"I can show you the way to the store room? There's also signs from here, too. It's fairly close to the dorms."

"Ah, useful. Yes, I think avoiding my name would be best. And that is a form of sealing, then?

How does one obtain things from stores? I don't have currency, if your world uses it. Or is it by permission from you?"

"The labeling's usually done so the letters glow, to make them easier to read when it's dim. Also can optionally alert you if someone not keyed in crosses the threshold."

"We sort of have currency - as in, people still use it among themselves when trading - but the store-rooms distribute common, basic goods based on need. If you need more of something than's allotted you'll have to convince the store master."

"Also useful. Could you clarify the connection to sealing? I feel I may have missed it."

What kind of goods are considered basic?"

"Sealing's what makes the glowing letters, and you use it for barriers - an alert's pretty basic, but we don't have enough masters to do a proper barrier on every room."

"Hm... Food staples - though those you get from the cafeteria - plain furniture, simple clothing, basic weapons. There's a separate store room for each. There's also water spigots in a few places. The water's unrestricted, we're above a pretty large aquifer."

She acknowledges.

Weapons. Well.

"It would be useful for me to have some tools for working, would that be something that's possible?"

"Depends on the tools, probably. What do you need?"

She lists some various carving tools and the like. "It doesn't have to be exactly that, if yours are different. If there's somewhere I could look at what you have, I could likely find what I could use."

"Hm... You'd probably want to talk to Tetsuma or someone else who works with wood, I'm sure someone has carving tools, but I don't think there's any in the store rooms."

"Would that be the best way to get a look at other tools as well? Stone, metal, and the like?"

"Finding someone? Probably. If no one has a certain tool, or if they're not willing to share, let me know, and I'll see what can be done. I should be able to make most tools with earth techniques, at least crudely..."