"Cool!" Temple says rubbing his hands together.

Luckily one of the other sorcerers found some torn pieces of rope, which can be easily fixed by the sorcery gift of another sorcerer.

"How tight should we be making these?"

He shrugs. "I'm just gonna be breaking them. Tight as you want."

Temple proceeds to tie Ari up.

"How do you know how to do that?"

The other sorcerers stare at Dal-Giulikian as to be astonished by his naiveté.

"I am a fast learner," Temple says with a smirk and punctuating it by pulling the knot very tight. "Okay, Ari. Do your thing."

Ari flexes, and pulls at the bindings, and it's not long before his skin reddens and his frame broadens and his spine begins to sharpen (and lower down, other changes take place), and then the ropes snap and he deflates, panting.

Temple non-ironically claps. "That was amazing! And fascinating."

Ari flashes him a grin. "Thanks! So, yes, big and red and spiny. Any new information there?"

"Of course!" he then starts a very technical explanation of the changing process. "On, a more practical note. It's a step towards understanding the entire thing better, maybe reversing it if you get stuck. I think I can at least come up with something that is activated conditional to your transformation."

"Nice! I'm a fan of knowing more about myself."

"I believe that's all?" Says one of the green coats. "I think Mr. Cain shouldn't cast magic that relies on youth expenditure until we've done some more testing in a safer environment."

Temple blinks. "Why? Because his youth self-renews? I don't think the trait would transfer over to a non-living target."

"Also, that sounds like it would be cool as shit."

The green coats are now looking annoyed and apprehensive.

"Relax, I don't want... whatever you're fearing and there was nothing in what we saw saying we can't do safe experiments."

Henry walks in, blinks at Ari and mutters something that sounds awfully a lot like "two of them" before speaking louder. "They want to know if you've done with preliminary testing."

"Apparently so. They're worried my infinite youth would transfer to non-living things if I cast youth magic; can someone explain why that's a bad thing?"

"Potentially uncontrollable magic." Dal-Giulikian pipes up. "Maybe the fear is an effect that grows constantly and then we get a second dead city type of thing plaguing the world. Or at least I think that's their concern. I think it isn't all that warranted. Or better yet, I think we can start you with the practice of smaller effects before moving on anything bigger. Because that's common sense when teaching anyone how to practice youth-related sorcery."

"We are just erring on the side of caution," says a green coat dryly.

"Ah. Yeah, a second dead city would be unpleasant. Unless we were able to toss it into Hell and let them deal with it."

"At any rate, I think that's enough for the day," says a green coat, looking a bit green-faced too.

"Okay... I guess you should report to your superiors," Henry says.

"They are your superiors too," says another green coat, "but yes." They start leaving.

Dal-Giulikian is totally not lingering. Not even one bit. He is just really interested in these books.

Ari moves over towards him, his clothes still in a heap on the floor. "Thanks for the explanation a minute ago," he says earnestly. "Did you have a question, or something? Or are you just particularly interested in Henry's books?"

He keeps looking Ari in the eyes. Very deliberately so. Then he smiles. "I never got the chance to see High Library books up close."

"Relatable," Temple says picking up a book, "The High Library hoards all the good stuff."

"I'd say you're welcome to look, but they're not mine, so I'm not really qualified to say. You're welcome to look at anything of mine, certainly."

Dal-Giulikian breaks eye contact.

"Temple, right? I would actually wanted to show you our collection in case there's anything you think we are missing anything."

He guides Temple towards the library.

Temple is distracted by the magical shiny and is led without a second glance.