The grownups are being boring and talking about things she doesn't understand.

"I want magic too!"

"It's certainly a risk but it's a very time consuming process, and while I said it wouldn't be hard to figure out that's mostly if you know what you're aiming for already and you know enough not to make it go critical before you want it to.

"I'm happy to distribute magic more widely but I don't want to presume."

"You prolly shouldn't decide based on what the first five trash-rats who say hi say either."

"Shareable magic is - huge. Ridiculously huge. This seems very important, actually. Are there - limits on how to share it? Does it run down a resource or anything?"

"There aren't any limits, except time and mental energy everything you do with magic takes those at least a little. Or if there are they are very very high. And the only decisions I'm making based on talking to you are what to give you and maybe where I'll go after I've spent some time with you."

"Hmm. Well, why don't we call it a day with the scavenging, kids?"

There are noises of agreement.

"My truck is also a mobile home. I want to go to the Three Hexes caravan camp and talk more there. I pay an entry fee and they enforce peace inside the camp. It's not that we're likely to find trouble in the field here, but it's better to be safe than sorry. It would be about an hour's drive. Does that sound alright?"

"Sure, that works for me. I'll ride in your truck with you then?"

"Yep, that sounds like a plan."

The kiddos are already heading towards the truck. The boy responsibly offers her the telekinesis-bracelet back.

She follows them to the truck.

"You can keep the bracelet it only took me a few seconds to make."

The truck looks bigger than an Earth-sized 18 wheeler up close, wider and taller, if not that much moreso. There's a flexible connection between the cab and trailer, and two seats and a machine gun turret and a very modest apartment-type arrangement with cramped facilities in the back and a rear cargo area full of shelving and large salvage objects on pallets and a small workbench area.

The ride is fairly rough due to the bad terrain.

"So, an important question I want to answer is- How can we make sure magic makes things better on average rather than worse? Every tool has helpful and destructive uses, right, so..."

"That's an important question and a hard one. In the long term, magic almost always serves to make things better if it's widely distributed. The part about in the long term is important though. Magic mostly serves to raise the floor of how bad someone's life can be. The issue arises in worlds where groups have a vested interest in that floor being low. From my first impression, that seems true of yours."

"I think that's true on... A lot of local scales? It's not- Well, I suppose groups do have such an interest in a lot of ways. And- Well. I guess I don't know much about Bastion's intentions and goals, but it would make sense that there's layers and layers up there, too. 'Bastion' is not a thing- Bastion's military, and their mining companies, and the everyday workers, and the guys giving the orders, are all doing different things that happen to shake out to not caring about the trash-pickers that much. There's Bastards who send --- Charity packages. With cameras on, sometimes. You got to give them a good show of smiley grubby kids overjoyed at toys themed after last season's popular show or whatever, maybe you'll get more. Down here too, there's people who wear the stomping boot and people who want to help."

"That all fits what I've seen of societies. It sounds like you have a healthy attitude. The main thing is that people are complicated. Magic can make life better for almost everyone, the only real exceptions are people who are already fabulously well off that already have magics or technologies to do everything magic can, and some of the people who's comfy life styles depend on people needing to accept bad conditions to survive.

"The issues in the short term come in people trying to prevent the world from changing and people who see the most important thing to do with magic as taking revenge on the people they think wronged them. I don't have a way to prevent either of those from happening. Framing can help and choosing what templates I give people to get started can help but ultimately it's a matter of convincing people a different way is better and there's no simple way to guarantee that."

"My gut is saying that - the people who have good and secure enough lives down here that they'd kill a lot of people to keep what little they have already is relatively small? I'd say we're around average quality of life, our little gang? And if you call it - something other than witchcraft, than magic, maybe it's a novel form of energy-based technology, that will help reception, it's really not the same thing as witches I think? Since it's the same between people? Uh... Avoid the Golden Sow trading company, the guy who runs it is a psycho. Feeds information to Bastion. Runs a protection racket. Feeds people in 'debt' to him to his pig sometimes."

"This wouldn't be the first time when the word magic bothered people. I think the last time it came up I called it Interspatial Interfacing. Eventually I think magic should be available to everyone but I'm not picky about the order so if you think some people would be better to leave for later I'll follow your lead at least for the area near you. The other real tool I have to tune the impact is what templates I hand out. There's limits to how far I would want to take that but reducing things to the basics is fine."

"His reputation is the kind of guy who would cheerfully accept magic and then try to kill you so he has an advantage."

"I've survived being shot at more than a few times but it's not something I enjoy so yes that sounds like a good choice."

"Hmmm."

They can drive quietly for a little while, then. Wren keeps checking the mirrors, sides, and rear camera very frequently.

"Anything you're looking for in particular?"

"Followers, drones, new groups."

She closes her eyes and extends her magic to look out from a ways above the truck. Does she see any obvious robots or people following the truck?

Not at the moment! There are drones further away, and several very distant flying craft, but nothing that seems to be following this particular truck.

"I don't see any nearby drones or people following us. I couldn't say what groups are new vs not."

"-I'll keep checking myself, actually. No offense intended."

"None taken, I'm unfamiliar and I already said I can't distinguish one of the things you said you're looking for."