"You can get that information from the feedback of this template if you view the Fractal as you're using it. It takes some practice though. The Fractal actually has information on compounds in it when you look at an object but again it takes practice to focus and get the specific information you want and not some other characteristic. I also have specific analysis templates that can tell you the compound balance of both objects and object bubbles. It depends on what path you want to take."

"Probably best to get used to the fractal," Genilha decides after a moment. "Since it sounds like that's how you would learn how templates refer to things in the first place."

Anþasta spent some time looking through it last night, but was more focused on trying to share magic this morning.

She takes a moment to remember how to draw magic into her eyes, and then starts trying to inspect the sand, and see what the difference is between it and the obsidian Maenik made.

There are too many differences. The fractal contains tremendous amounts of information, at many different levels, not just the four Maenik described, and it's impossible to sort out which symbols are the ones signifying compounds.

She gives up after a moment and blinks rapidly, to refocus her eyes.

"Er. Is there a way to tell which symbols tell you what compounds are in something?"

"I can give you a language packet that lets you read some of the common symbols. That's how most people do it. If you knew a symbols based language I could make a translation guide, but otherwise I would have to show you symbols and have you memorize what they mean from me explaining them aloud."

"I'll gratefully accept a language packet if you're offering it, but it sounds like probably we'll just have to learn it the hard way. And maybe the caravans will call another language meeting to add standardized terms to our language for them," she replies. "Do the symbols look the same to everyone? Because then you could sort of describe them visually ..."

"They do always look the same, I think it would be easier to make illusions than to just describe them though. As to making terms in your language I think that's a good idea. Having a basis is important though. I can either give you just the symbols or the symbols and the verbal language I gave Ðani. Language packets are easy to share, though depending on how you use them as a culture it can mean languages don't change or grow as much. It can also mean the opposite where people hop from language to language repeatedly until all the languages get a bit muddled together."

"Well, I think the point of languages is to be able to talk to people," Anþasta muses. "If anyone can just share languages with each other and then understand each other, maybe they'll stop trying to standardize languages at all, and everyone will just have their own private one that they share with the people they want to talk to."

She taps her lip in thought.

"Or is it like patterns, where you want to be careful not to have too many, so that you don't use too much magic?"

"Language packets are another type of memory bubble yes. As for languages, there's entire schools devoted to studying languages and what those languages say about the people that used them. To give a simple example, some languages have a lot of different words for ice because the differences between types matter a lot for the people that use them. People generally have words for things they need to say. Languages also sometimes have assumptions that are shaped by the people who use them and shape those people in turn."

"Well, sure, but that's why I would expect people to have their own languages if there weren't a reason to share them with other people," she points out. "I mean, Reformed North-Eastern Marnesi Trade Language has words for a bunch of monarchy terms that I have never really needed. So if I weren't interested in talking with the other people who use it, why would I distinguish those words?"

"I think the people who worry about preserving languages worry, well aside from the archivists who want to preserve everything, care about retaining the cultural practices that are linked to language, songs are an easy enough example, translating songs is really hard to do well. Also profanity, where languages derive profanity from can influence people in subtle ways."

"... huh. Alright."

She does not actually speak any other languages herself, so she's certainly never tried translating a song.

"So ... this has been helpful, and we can definitely practice more with these templates, but if we're going to share magic with the whole village, it would be a bottleneck if everyone needed to borrow them. Do you think you could teach us how to embed templates in objects?"

"Right, that's absolutely on the list. It's one of the skills that's relevant to using my template library though for the moment I can just give you another template for copying templates." She makes a partial stone ring and hands it to Anþasta. "I think this should be easy enough to figure out in terms of copying. After, you've made a copy you can either keep it in your own magic or push it into an object."

Anþasta smiles and bounces a little.

"Thanks! This is great."

She uses the duplication template to duplicate the body of the ring, and then tries to use the template in the ring to copy itself.

That works. Free templates feel a little like ingrained templates and a little like memory bubbles. The template is made of her magic so she can move it around without much difficulty.

"That's really neat!"

She sets about duplicating each of the tools, so that the three native magic-havers can each have a copy.

"Can you put a template in only part of an object? Actually — why did you choose these objects specifically?"

She smiles. "I'm glad. You can restrict a template to part of an object; it's a little tricky though so people usually fuse template objects instead if they're trying to make a collection. As for the objects I chose, the duplicator was symbolic because of being a fusion of two and the bulb was reminiscent of some objects people use to make light sometimes. The scanner was a glass crystal because if you don't have magic complex glass shapes are a way to see things better than you could otherwise. The cube and the bowl were both examples of what their template can do and that's also the same for the," She pauses for a second to try to find a descriptor, "the quenched stone."

"Oh, I see. So people can easily tell them apart as a sort of mnemonic."

Ðani looks up from fiddling with her copy of the template-duplicator.

"I guess you normally carry these templates around inside your own magic?" she surmises. "So people don't, like, make bracelets with a different template in every charm?"

"It depends on the person and the template both with how fast you expect to need a template and how much trouble it would be to get a replacement if you lost one. I carry a lot of templates in my body instead of my magic but not many in possessions. Some people do use charm bracelets though. Or staffs with a series of templates stacked on top of each other."

"How many templates do you have?" she asks. "I know you said they don't tie up much of your magic, but I'm not sure if they're all the same ... size, if that makes sense."

"My library has a very large number in a compressed form. I keep about five sixes ready to use."

"Huh! No wonder you find it more convenient not to juggle so many objects!" Ðani observes. "Probably we want to recommend that people do the same, then. Is it any different to put a template in your body than in an item? Is there any reason I shouldn't try it with one of these?"

"It's possible to pull a template out of an object but it's harder than putting it in so I'd recommend knowing how to do that before you start using parts of your body. I also don't expect you to need that many templates on a regular basis. I have that many because I don't know where I'll end up until I get there and sometimes I need to respond to where I am really quickly."

"Ah, yeah. Okay, no putting templates in bodies for now. Are there other safety warnings like that which it would make sense for us to pass onto people as we share magic with them?"