"No, I'm following the patterns in the bluestream. I can only fly if there's enough aligned threads, but they're all tangled up in this world so I have to go back and forth and back again or just give up and walk."

"Huh. Well, at least your magic works here. Sorcery supposedly doesn't work in the mortal world at all."

"I imagine I'd have to see some sorcery to even start to guess why."

"If you come back to my tree I can show you some."

"Um, mortal?"

She does not respond. After about fifteen seconds, she snaps out of it. "Damn, I can't make heads or tails of this place. Even if there's something important here, I can't tell what it is."

"If there's a gate here and that's what got you, you'd want to go back the way you came, across wherever you arrived. Can you retrace your steps...?"

"I have paper at home."

"My memory will have to do, then. Lead the way?"

"How is my 'real name' defined, exactly? I already have my trade name - the name I use whenever I'm doing magic."

"The first full name you were ever named."

"Ah. Then my trade name will do just fine. It's 'Steel'. Nice to meet you, Promise."

"Likewise. Although I do hope I can get you home soon. It's dangerous here for mortals."

"It definitely sounds that way. It would be a really nice place to live if not for the slave thing. The bluestream is so much easier to work with here. I bent it a little to help me fly - it was almost effortless compared to pushing back the endless fog it wants to be back home."

"I wonder why. What is the bluestream?"

"It's... The framework that lets shapers do magic. It's everywhere, you just can't see it unless you're a shaper and you sacrifice your ability to see the physical world for a little bit. We can't do anything with the stream when it's just fog, but by sacrificing some or all of our ability to use muscles for a while we can shape it in ways that allow almost anyone to use magic. Roads have flying-shaped bluestream, hospitals have healing-shaped bluestream, and so on. That's why I was complaining about the stream here - it's in patterns, not fog, but the patterns are close to useless. I was wondering why someone bothered making them. Now I think they're naturally occurring."

"Maybe they're the same thing. What are harmonics?"

"Harmonics are a sorcery-affecting feature of locations which vary depending on what's nearby and other factors. But nobody can see them. There's a way to map them but I don't know it - I mean, I don't know the conventions to write it down usefully; I know the lay of the harmonics around my tree and foraging grounds."

"Will you be much inconvenienced if the harmonics change? Because if not, there's an obvious test here."

"Before you go changing the harmonics I'm used to around my tree I'd rather see if we can confirm this some other way, like seeing if you can detect the structures I'm familiar with or see resonances around the tree or eddies from sorcery I do."

"I don't think I perceive them in a way that will make much sense to you, but yes, that's a better plan."