She leans on him heavily. "Ugh. I haven't tried to walk without substantial magical boost since I was, what, eight, nine, I think that's when I started tripping less."

"Well, good news. I have magic from my other world. So I can keep you from getting hurt. I - didn't catch it earlier, sorry, but you're protected now."

"That's convenient. Do tell about the other world."

"We don't all have magic, for one. Sometimes lucky people, when they're at a certain age, get a choice of different magic types to choose from. Those are ravelers, or mages, if you prefer, we haven't standardized it. I picked protection magic. So I can protect people."

Kithabel manages to stand without leaning on Adarin, and stops leaning. "I'd say I like your choice but I don't know what it was competing with."

"Its major competitor was weather magic," he sighs, forlorn. "But I took too long trying to figure out if it was large scale or just," handwave, "little trick showers or something, and I lost the option. I couldn't have lost animal communication, no, it had to be weather. Ugh."

"And because magic is scarce it would be a fairly big deal to have weather?"

"Oh, yes. If it was at the scale I wanted, anyway, where I could prevent floods and water crops and such."

"Well, you picked something good, anyway. I should talk to my mother. How did you say you got here? Magic otherworldly snake or something?" Kithabel minces her way carefully to her bedroom door.

She touches the wall and goes to the pointless little room. "Do you know if my lift still works? Because that would be a heck of a way to test your protection, if it doesn't."

"Is that what that was? I have no idea, I didn't know what it did, so I left it alone."

"And Rhana didn't show you? Huh. Well, if she didn't show you maybe she thought it was too risky, I'll defer to her judgment on that for now. Stairs it is. Great." She heads for the exit.

"I can't quite - you seem very nice and the circumstantial evidence heavily favors you being on the level, but I can't fly or heal myself on zilch momentum and I have never seen your thing in action, so."

"No offense taken," he agrees. "I can shield myself and I'm leery of flinging myself off of things. And I have proof that it works."

"But you know what I should actually do, before going to see Rhana, is be less - having been in bed for a year," says Kithabel, pausing, looking down at herself, and turning around. "At least she didn't decide to put me in a nightgown or something, but still. I'll see if the plumbing works, if it doesn't zilch momentum might be enough to get me spruced up a little, my clothes at least aren't magic - do you have pressing engagements I'm keeping you from or can you wait?"

"No, it's fine. I can wait."

"Okay." She closes herself in a bedroom. There is the sound of a thump and a "thank youuu" and then silence and then the door opens and she's in a different pair of pants and shirt with her hair brushed and her general expression less groggy. "Plumbing's busted, which doesn't bode well for the lift, although the lights still work."

"How much is a bit?"

"About five month's worth."

"I don't think you can fix my plumbing like that, and I managed virtually socially acceptable levels of hygeine from a cold start, but thanks."

"Sure."

"So you like my palace, huh?"