"Exactly."

"The rest of us are just some level of conveniently masochistic."

"I guess that is convenient under the circumstances."

"It is!"

"But it's not - well, if I understand your meaning correctly, I don't think it's quite what I was talking about - I mean, I think there's a difference between things that hurt and things that involve flowers growing out of you and I think I handle the first kind of thing more easily."

"I think I get what you mean?" says Anna. "And yeah, it's a whole different thing, but I got used to it fine."

"It helps that most of them don't actually burrow."

"...Yeah, that sounds like it would help a lot."

"Most of them just sort of--phase through."

"Yes, that would be - easier."

"That does suggest you don't want to try the red and black one or one of the pink and yellow ones first, though."

"Depends. How useful are those ones?"

"Every rose has a kind of augmentation it gives you, a primary magic, and four secondary magics. You start out with just the primary magic and the augmentation, and after you've trained the primary magic enough you can pick a secondary magic. Once you've trained some combination of primary and secondary enough you can pick another secondary, and so on. The red and black flower's augmentation is speed and reflexes, and its primary magic is cutting things. The pink and yellow ones both have grace for the augmentation and healing other people for the primary magic; I haven't trained with either of the pink and yellow ones very much because we're not sure why magic isn't common knowledge in our home universe yet so we've been hesitant about letting other people know and all roses do regeneration."

"Hmmmmm. How about the other flowers, what do they give you?"

"The black and white one augments you with flight, and its primary magic is conjuration; it's by far the most useful flower but also the one that hurts the most and responds zero to painkillers; I wouldn't recommend trying it first even if you intended to go with it for the first one to get used to. The white and blue one augments your senses and does cold and is a bad choice to try first because we got it recently so we only have the one so it should stay where it is so we can replicate it sooner. The red and orange one also augments your senses and its primary magic is fire, same deal with the newness. The blue and purple ones augment your strength and give you telekinesis and the one with the purple blossom and blue stems is new but the one with the blue blossom and purple stems isn't, I'd recommend you go with that one first; even if based on the magic you want to start training some other one as soon as possible the one with the blue petals seems likely to be the best combination of 'reasonable to put in right now' and 'minimally unpleasant to do so for calibration purposes.'"

"All right, I accept your logic."

"They hurt differently, too--the pink and yellow ones just burrow, the red and black one burrows while drawing blood, the red and orange one burns, the white and blue one freezes, the black and white one just hurts, but a lot, and the blue and purple ones hurt like bruising. In case that affects anything."

"...I can't decide whether the black and white one sounds great or terrible..."

"I still think you should try one of the not that ones first but you can check for yourself, assuming talking to the King goes as I'm pretty much expecting it to at this point."

"And how are you expecting it to go?"

"Something that ends with us convinced that it probably isn't worth risking death to confirm that your enemies are as genocidal as you claim."

"That's how I expect it to go, too!"

"I'd sort of expect you to say that regardless but I do in this case believe you."

"If I didn't think talking to the king would work I would've suggested you do something else!"

"Talking to the king could've been a stalling tactic, or something you hoped would work but you weren't sure and didn't have better options."