"No - we humans don't!  Without my wand," (she holds it up) "I can't do any magic at all.  Except, well, living and moving my body - it's still debated at home whether that's magic to some small degree, and if anything you've said holds true at all at home that's definitely the case.  Even if this's a story set up by magic - to even interact with my soul with magic to the degree that's required would be strong evidence!

"Elves and Dragons and Fay are different; they're innately magical without any wands needed..."

"... sadly, almost all of them died in the Last Elven War.  As far as anyone knows, there's exactly one Elf and one Dragon left alive."

"...Well.  That's fucked up."

"Also, this is going to sound utterly stupid - but you should try doing magic without your wand, real quick.  Just something really simple, that won't explode you if it goes wrong.  It might help differentiate the possible universes."

(Azerosa technically has exactly zero dragons, for Heroine reasons, but that doesn't stop Alicia from knowing what a dragon is.)

"...Anyone would be, if they had but a single quantum of their soul capable of empathy.  It's a base platitude, but...given the opportunity, I would offer my condolences for her loss."

"...Ciara has said it much better than I could.  I...wish there was more I could do.  No-one deserves to be stuck as The Last Of Their Kind like that, and from how you speak of her, Queen Elethy less than most."

"Believe me, I've tried. I'm pretty sure I've helped. Some."

If General Connar's wildest guesses about the Crystal Mountains are true... maybe there might be another Elf there? Somehow frozen in time till now? But - Aeslin hopes not. If so, they would be an evil Elf, and Aeslin hopes Elethy won't have to meet another Elf only to find them evil.

... and that said, on to the happier topic of magic!

"Sure!  I guess I'll pick - order; that's the one we've been talking about and I think I understand the best."

She steps over to the desk and carefully, gingerly sets down her wand, as gingerly as if it's got her life in it.  And then she reaches up her sleeve and pauses.  "Actually, I've got a few spare wands sewn into my blouse, just in case.  And even a bit of wood in my slip that might serve as a wand in a tough spot.  Normally I'd be confident I wouldn't accidentally cast through them, but just to make absolutely sure it wouldn't hurt the experiment, do you have something I can change into quickly?"

"Sensible precautions."  As to whether she means the wands, or the changing clothes to avoid risking the experiment, she doesn't elucidate.  (But it's probably the wands.)

"I will want these back," she says, producing spare clothes from Somewhere.  They aren't quite exactly Aeslin's size - they look more like a spare set of Ciara's - but they'll suffice.

"...Ah, and let me just..."

A brief flare of magic precedes a screen appearing for her guest to change behind.

Aeslin wants to look closer at that flash of magic.

But she's not holding a wand, and the wood in her slip isn't fine enough to cast anything precise.

So she instead takes Ciara's spare clothes and goes behind the screen to change.  They feel strange on her, but she shrugs that off; they're obviously fitted for someone else.  Her sister would have any number of comments on the style, she's sure... (She blinks back tears; hopefully she can see Mireda again someday?)... but she doesn't care.

And then, she comes back out, loosely folding her own clothes and setting them on the desk next to her main wand.

"So!  Order!  I'll pick something that isn't anywhere near my wand -"  She points to a coil of rope on the other side of the room.  "And I'll try to channel the magic through my arm itself, just as if I was an Elf.  New human students try this a lot, sometimes by accident, and when they're holding a wand it can actually hurt them - but not much for something small like this."

She holds out her arm at the rope and visualizes it lifting in the air and uncoiling.  She tries to probe for the magic and push it out, as if she had a wand in her hand...

Alicia watches intently, taking something like notes, stored in her own magic.  ...Really, that might almost come out as spirit magic even if it doesn't remotely seem like it should be that...

...but it is, well, order to its core in approach even if still somewhat convoluted.

...She has no idea of how that rope came to be there, which is disconcerting - perhaps Alicia made it - but she supposes, seeing it levitate, that it makes a convenient test subject.

Huh.  Her arm's glowing.  ...Wait, shit, that's bad for different reasons -- "Ciara, kill the spell!"

There is a flare of something cold and certain as the magic stills.  "We should have known better.  A word of advice, dragging magic from the Twisting Nether through your body isn't good for you either."

Alicia buries her face in her hands.  "Well.  It worked, sort of, and while that sort of mana flow was a bad plan, we know you can use our magic - that sort of radiance is characteristic."

"...Come to think of it, though, it's like your magic is all spirit magic even if it's arcane in a funny hat...  I wonder if we could do something with that similarity."

It worked!  She did magic with her own body!  Without any wand!  She's now magical herself, in herself!  She doesn't need wands and devices anymore!

- but she pinches off the spell the same moment as Ciara flares.

Even though it didn't feel fundamentally different yet...

"So what was that?  It didn't look any different from Svarendar - the dragon - when he was trying to be flashy with our magic at home.  But the Twisting Nether sounds bad - I was focusing on Order as much as I could, just like I said.  Maybe my glee was pulling me off?  Or maybe something's different in my soul?  Or maybe I'm misunderstanding Order?

"But I can do magic!  All with myself!"

"It was...

"No, it wasn't a fault in your understanding or anything."

She pauses, clearly thinking about how to try and explain.

"The thing you tried to do with your understanding was where things went sideways.

"To do magic is to externalize your will.  Don't call up the forces of magic inside yourself, unless you are calling up the magic that's - that is, and is inside of, you - that's a discipline of spirit magic, albeit one that many don't think of.  Because if you call the magic to you it will change you more than touching it already does."

Oh no.

"Change me?  How?  In my body?  Soul?  In what way?"