"Yes, I ended up just using bluestream there. What would you say, if not willpower?"

"Clarity of intent? If you have that right you don't need to force it, it just goes."

"All right." Promise hands her the book.

Steel takes the book. "What do fairies do for fun anyway? There's hardly anybody around, no interesting shops to visit or good restaurants... Come to think of it, fairies can't do restaurants, can they? The food thing. That's a bit terrible, so much good food comes from places other than one's own cooking."

"Fairies are actually in much less danger from the food thing than mortals are, at least relative to fairy food that isn't special in some way. I can forage safely, I just wouldn't go to someone's house and eat what they served. When I'm not gathering food I read and practice sorcery and I fly. Sometimes I sing or draw."

"Do fairies do sports? The different body types might throw a wrench in that, huh. I could really go for a good soccer match right now."

"I suppose larger courts might have some kind of sport activity, but not me. What's soccer?"

"It's a game where two teams of eleven mortals try to kick a small ball past each other and into a goal on either side of a flat grass field. You're not allowed to use your arms or magic, which makes footwork very important. There's flying or telekinetic versions of it, but they're not as popular since actively using magic kinda saps the fun out of doing things. Flying without feeling a little dead inside sounds really nice."

"I would be terrible at this game."

Steel starts flipping through the harmonic mapping book. "How so?"

"I'm not very good at footwork. I fly when I can and even when I walk I use my wings for balance a lot."

"Nobody says you have to be good at sports to talk to me. Hey, this book has some pretty interesting stuff, it's almost as complicated as bluestream manipulation."

"Yeah, I read a little of it on the flight. The book is a compilation of some of the common ways sorcerers draw maps of the harmonics - there's no absolute standard, but these are the popular ones. I think I find the first one mentioned most intuitive."

"Yeah, I can see how the different notations are good for different kinds of thinking. First one it is. I wonder if the stone circles would work on you?"

"Stone circles?"

"They're how you become a shaper. For some reason that we can't quite figure out, it has to be done inside a ring of large stones arranged just so. You sign a liability release, go in and sit there in a sensory-deprived fugue state for half a week, and then you're a shaper. Some people can't do it, and if they try it just hurts like hell for a few minutes, but I bet you can try if you manage to hide your wings somehow."

"The wings being a problem in terms of whether I'd be allowed and not whether it'd work?"

"The wings are a problem for being allowed. You not being a human is why it might not work. We have different biology, probably. Not to mention fairies are very magic, and humans not at all until they become shapers."

"Why wouldn't I be allowed with visible wings?"

"Because only people who already have it can safely withstand any significant body-mods. They'll ask lots of weird questions and it'll just be a massive pain. Much easier to hide them."

"Well, I could turn them invisible, but that'll leave its own harmonic marks if anyone happens to look."

"Yeah, that's a problem. I wonder if I could build one. We don't have that many because they're a limited amount of useful, not because they're hard to build. Is there any bluestone around here?"

"I'm not exactly up on kinds of stone. There are stones that are blue..."

"Sounds like a research project. I'd need books from home anyway. I'll go try to sorcer lights and let you ponder gate-making, for now."