"And what are the things about them that are very different from how unicorn spells work?"

"Wizardry is gestures and words and in most cases also intentions and occasionally diagrams. Witchcraft's potions. Lights do healing, among other details, and mages do elemental control one per, and sorcerers do telekinesis but nothing else."

"Oh, we have potions, but you don't have to be a unicorn to make them unless they need a spell cast on them at some point to work. Some of them aren't magical at all. You could say unicorn spells involve intentions, but I think it might be more accurate to say they involve... ideas. A compass spell uses the idea of a compass."

"Witches don't have to be anybody in particular either, it's just a skill. And the intentional components are most often along the lines of, 'this is who I am aiming the spell at', or 'this is the color I intend to turn that object' or whatever."

"Oh. Yes, I see what you mean. Unicorn magic has that sort of thing too, but only incidentally. Like when I was casting the spell to try to get Joy from wherever he went, I specified in my head that wherever Joy went is where I wanted the spell to look and dragons were what I wanted it to bring back. And all the safety stuff on top of that. It's a hard spell and it's not very good, but I didn't want to wait a week while I figured out how to invent a better one."

"How long does it take to cast unicorn spells, by and large?"

"It depends. Mostly it's a few seconds or less, depending how big and complicated the spell is. Some spells you don't just cast once and have done with, you have to actively keep them going, and those need your concentration and oomph for as long as you want them to go on, but that's not really the same thing as casting time; they still don't take all that long to start."

"Oomph, right - is there a unit you can measure oomph in? And if so how much do most unicorns have?"

"Well, it doesn't sound hard to make a wizard spell that'd do it, but those can only be cast in Elcenia," muses Kaylo, "and maybe there's a wrinkle I'm not seeing and it'd take a few experimental iterations."

"I think I'd like to travel to Elcenia," she says.

"That can be arranged," he says. "I can do it myself, even, from there, I'll have to get a teacher on board but if there's somebody from here already free to wander the library I don't imagine that'll be too hard."

"That would be nice of you! How would your magic do it?"

"I'd draw a fiddly little circle specifying the spell I want to use - which matters not only because different spells do different things but also because you can't have the exact same spell active twice per caster simultaneously - and then I'd wave my hand like so," he waves his hand like so, "or something, I'd have to look up the exact power pull for whichever spell I settled on, and then I'd say the magic word, while concentrating on aiming at you in particular, and then there you'd be."

"Interesting! What are the fiddly little circles like?"

"Two concentric circles, enough room for whatever you're summoning in the middle, various symbols in between - I'd draw you one but I don't have enough of the stuff memorized."

"And the symbols specify which spell, or do they specify other things too?"

"The symbols don't fully specify which spell - they and the word do, together. Words never duplicate, gestures often do, circles technically can although they usually don't."

"I think I want to learn all about Elcenian magic."

"Trade you."

"It's a deal." She holds up a hoof.

"I have no idea what to do with that," he says of her hoof. "If it were a hand I'd shake it. Do you shake hooves?"

"Yes," she giggles.

So he bends down and shakes her hoof.

It is a very tiny hoof, and... somehow... capable of clasping his hand well enough to shake back.