"I think most warnings would be about specific templates. Like being careful with the air-walking since sometimes it's hard to avoid falling.

"The really dangerous things are ones I wouldn't really expect people to try. If you focus your magic in the right way even without a template you can change your body instead of just healing it and bodies can be delicate. Usually you have enough time to heal the damage before it's unrecoverable but that's not always the case.

"Also, don't try to force all your magic into a small ball inside yourself and push it away in a direction that isn't any of the physical ones. You'll die and your body won't be pretty. I don't know if everyone should be told those things but they are worth having someone know. I'm sorry if you were the wrong people to place that burden on."

Ðani blinks.

"No, no, I'd much rather know than not know. Forewarning is usually a good thing," she reassures Maenik. "It's ... not the kind of thing you could do by accident, though, is it? You'd have to concentrate?"

"If you're experimenting with magic inside your body it's possible to get the right texture of magic by accident but it's pretty unlikely if you're not specifically trying for something similar. Balling up your magic like that isn't something you could do by accident though your magic prefers to spread out through your body.

"Strictly speaking pushing your magic both in and out like that isn't the only way of extinguishing yourself but it's the one closest to what I would expect someone to try. It always requires both sustained effort and two seemingly opposite actions that would intuitively result in you not having any magic."

The villagers exchange glances.

"Alright. That seems like an important safety thing to share, since I'm sure people will try to experiment. Is that the only safety tip you have?"

"I guess the other piece of advice would be to be very careful if you're trying to do something like what a template does without the template. Or when designing new templates. The ones I've given you have safety features. If you don't have those it can be like trying to hold fire in your hand instead of a lantern."

"I did think that your templates were really ... smooth to use, I guess. Like a sharp knife," Ðani agrees. "And I'm sure people will want to do experimentation to make their own templates, but I don't think it's too much to ask that they wait until things have settled down a little, and experiment responsibly. Alright."

She turns to address the other villagers.

"Do you think we can go and start sharing with the others? Oh — Maenik, would you come along for the first one or two, to make sure that we're passing along your lessons correctly?"

"Of course I'll come. I think the only other thing would be if you wanted a copy of my library and lessons on how to use it. I think that might take a while though. It tends to be harder for people who aren't accustomed to written language."

"I'm sure we definitely want that," Ðani agrees. "Your template library sounds tremendously useful. But if there are so many templates ... I'd prefer to get everyone protected by magic and have them set up the patterns they'll want over the course of the winter sooner rather than later, if that makes sense?"

"Of course."

"Great!"

She flashes Maenik a smile, and then she and Anþasta dart up the beach toward the latter's house. In a few moments, Anþasta sits on the porch holding her grandmothers hand. Ðani darts off into the village, and returns with an amused person with close cropped black hair.

"Ah, the energy of youth," Genilha remarks to Maenik, making his way up the beach at a more sedate pace. "Although she was more of a handful at four."

"Most people are a handful at that age. I'm not sure you're going to get to gripe about the energy of youth for too much longer though. Magic's healing generally brings older people back to their prime or better."

"That will be something to look forward to," Genilha agrees.

He walks in contemplative silence for a moment.

"... if magic brings people back to their prime, does anyone still age?"

"Well, kids usually still grow up physically. There's some people who are really attached to being a child but almost everyone decides to let their body take the shape of an adult eventually. We also age in our minds. There are limits to how our minds work and those mean that people either deteriorate or they get rather odd eventually."

Genilha briefly blanches at the idea of Ðani just deciding to remain four forever.

"That sounds tough to cope with, on both fronts. Is there any kind of ... limit or guideline for how long you can live before your mind starts deteriorating?"

"Most people are okay for at least six sixes of sixes years. Without actively managing their mind everyone starts to have issues before getting to half that again. Beyond that it takes a lot of active management and even if you're careful that takes a toll that adds up. A lot of people decide they want a more dignified end than slowly losing themselves."

"Yes, that makes perfect sense," Genilha agrees. "Still, that's triple to four and a half times what we have now, I think. Some people can live past two sixes of sixes years, but pretty much not past three. What does 'actively managing' one's mind look like? Some kind of magic?"

"Most people use magic for that yes. Some people try to use really complicated technology instead but they're the minority."

"Then that magic is also one that we'd be grateful to have you explain," he concludes. "But if it's not going to be a problem for many years, that might be a discussion for later."

As they reach the porch, Anþasta, with the benefit of additional practice, manages to share her magic with her grandmothers.

"Oh! Well, doesn't that feel strange," Oskeli remarks.

"Ha! That's easier once you have practice with templates, I think," she relays. "Let's see ..."

She rummages through the templates she's carrying, finding the air-stepping one.

"Okay — so you probably shouldn't try to step into the air with this, but this is a template that can help you feel out how to use structured and unstructured magic. You feel that sort of sloshy feeling? Well ..."

And she begins explaining some of the basics of manipulating magic, before handing the template to her grandmothers.

Maenik smiles and doesn't interrupt unless it seems like Anþasta is misunderstanding something.

She has a theory-focused, rather than practice-focused, understanding of the techniques. Maenik might get the impression that this is a girl suited to academia, except for growing up in a rural village. But other than that, there's no real problem with her explanation. She takes plenty of time to make sure that Oskeli is understanding things properly.

Once her grandmothers have worked with each of the templates, and created their own set, she turns to Maenik to see how she did.

"Was that a good enough explanation?" 

"I think so. It passed the real test for these things which is that you communicated what you wanted to."