"Oh, that would be pretty nice. Hey, is there some way for people who aren't from your world to get their hands on some of this magic? I don't like to mix business and pleasure and all, but there's kind of a lot of evil things that want me dead, and it's always nice to have something unexpected under my belt."

"Well, I don't know how this different worlds stuff interacts with that, but in general all you need to do to pick up the discipline of your choice is a knowflower. The one I have on me is a speakflower..." She unscrews its vial. "...And its networking isn't functioning right, I thought it was healthy but maybe I was wrong."

"...Possibly relevant: your world is kind of frozen while you're in here. You could try opening the door, that'll unpause things as long as you hold it."

"Oh. Well, that might fix the speakflower's networking, but I don't think I can reach any knowflowers from the door I came in."

"Aw. Don't worry about it too much, I hold my own. It's amazing what a bunch of fire can do, pointed at the right people."

"All that and you don't even have to deal with pyromancy's emotional disregulation. Nice gig if you can get it."

"Yeah, magic's pretty nice. Plus I get to live for a few hundred years, as long as nobody shoots me first. Or, well, actually people have shot me, but if they shoot me... better, I guess?"

"I'm gonna be immortal."

"Well, la di dah. These Mancies just get better and better, huh."

"Yeah. I mean, by the time I'm immortal I will probably have a meaningfully difficult time wresting my attention from whatever's caught my personal attention to pay attention to someone else dangling from a cliff, but I think if I'm very careful I will just be able to direct my personal attention where it ought to be, just for unconventional reasons."

"Best of luck on that. I haven't necessarily had the best track record with that kind of thing, but impulse control has never been my strong suit."

"Sounds like stories."

"Well, the magic I have isn't the only kind around, and some of them do things to your head. Like the charmingly named 'Hellfire', which is a potent magic source that destroys things very nicely, but makes you angrier and more impulsive. I ended up... relying on it, a bit. It didn't turn out very well."

"But you can put it down again after you pick it up?"

"Well, if you give it up completely, which is pretty hard. It was mostly only possible because I'd taken a tiny fraction of the power I could've had. If I'd gone the full package deal, I'd probably be kicking puppies on a professional basis by now."

"Professional puppy-kicking. I don't think my world has that. Unfortunately for 'mancers it's the learning, not the using, that causes the vice, and you can't unlearn whatever you decide to learn."

"That sucks. Some people think it's that way on my world too. That if it ever happened, you're stained for good. I tend to disagree, and fortunately there are people who agree with me."

"Lucky you. 'Stained' is a weird way to talk about it though."

"I mean, it's kind of literal. We've got this... magic... vision thing. If you've used the kind of magic that does nasty things to your brain, it's like a black stain all over your soul. Or sometimes something more symbolic, but it leaves a mark."

"I can check, if you like. It's like... seeing how someone would be described in the introduction to their book, or something. Lots of symbols of what they're like and who they are. But I can't use it in here, so I'd rather you stand just outside the door if we're going to do this; the bar's full of magic, it hurts my head."

"What else will you pick up if you do this?"

"If you've got any secrets you're really guilty about, it might give me some weird hints about them. Murder especially, I definitely recommend against it if you kill people. Hmm... I'll probably get some outline of your personality and your values, but it's all pretty vague. There's a version with more detail, but I don't really do it as a party trick because they get the same view, and it upsets people. Speaking of which, don't look into my eyes, I avoid people's eyes as a habit but you might as well be forewarned. But, like, usually I'll See someone as a guardian angel with a fiery sword, or I'll See blood dripping from their hands, or there'll be holes in their skull, or something. That kind of thing."

"I've never killed anybody. Thanks for the eyes warning. Hmm, I think your cultural references might be lost on me - the thing with the sword in particular. What would the perforated skull mean, for that matter?"

"The guardian angel, that's sort of- a divine figure, who protects people and fights evil. She's a good friend of mine. The skull thing was in the case of a man who had had some really nasty mind magic done to him that basically turned him into a vegetable. Really awful."