"Then this inner workings of this place will remain a mystery for now. I might be able to copy magic from you. Probably not the original way you're doing it, more of a version translated into what my mana can understand how to do. But you're capable of so much different stuff I'm having trouble picking individual spells out. D'you want a drink? The first one's free, apparently."

"Should I want you to copy magic from me?"

"I've never hurt any person with magic, I've got no nefarious intentions, and probably better or as good versions of most of what you have already? I swear to use anything I get for the good of many by trying to prevent the nasty city-destroying monsters called Neuroi from turning another town to ash every few days? That's what this uniform is for, by the way. Witch wings, we fight Neuroi since witches are about the only thing that can survive a fight with a Neuroi."

"Well, as sales pitches go that's not bad." She approaches closer. "I'm Bella."

"Grendyne, call me Gren. Nice to meet you. If you've got lie-detection somewhere in there I won't fault you for using it, by the way. Does your world have monsters too? I hope it doesn't, nobody needs monsters."

"Nothing quite as systematically troubling as it sounds like Neuroi are, but there's manticores and such."

"How do manticores be monstrous? Hey bar, if you have everything you probably have Perrot's A History of the Invasion, right? There's an illustration on the cover that I think is a particularly good example of a Neuroi. They come in all shapes and sizes, though."

"Yup. That's the one that got most of Berlin. Moved its core around, which is something Neuroi hadn't done before then. I was in that fight, along with about three hundred other witches. That's the only way to kill them - getting the core. But enough depressing stuff about monsters and so on." She goes back to reading that napkin about communication things.

Bella reads over her shoulder.

"I didn't even know about the telegraphs and steam trains," remarks Bella.

"Maybe you can find some things here that would be useful back home. I am assured that the door will lead back to whichever door it hijacked if you open it. How do your lenses work? We don't get to create magic items. Or if we do, they're so rare as to be legendary."

"...I get to create magic items, is how. Each lens has a different sort of spell woven onto each other for seeing magic, and the whole set have a spell to make them cooperate okay with each other."

Bella fiddles with her spectacles and peers at Gren. "Maybe. I can make you a few little things as a favor but healing doesn't go into items especially well; I could put a spell on you that would heal target people when you said a trigger word. Protection amulet can do but I don't have the materials on me and would have to get them here. I can't even lean out and send my cat to get me things; the door this place took is the door to my workshop."

"I'll buy you materials too, if bar can get them. Even just one protection amulet could make a big difference. I suspect I might be able to copy them, too, but I'll just have to try. Would the healing trigger be infinitely reusable, or at least replenishable?"

"Oh, yeah, once you've got the trigger on you, you can use it as much as you want."

"Convenient, that."

"Yeah. I have a few healing ones, but I can do triggers for a lot of possible things - one famous trigger spell shoots a jet of soapy lemony water, which does have an important use but is none the less quite arbitrary from a setup standpoint."

"I'd invite you into our world but I assume you don't want to be stuck there. I wonder if I can whisper spell at other people on base if I hold the door open, have them come in here? Four healing triggers are better than one, if you're willing to do that many."

"I don't have any inclination to charge for labor under the circumstances. Ingredients would add up, but if you can get more people here presumably they can bring money?"