"Yeah, we have those things most places. Magic's not even common knowledge, though. And while I'm not sure anyone's tried to industrialize it, it kind of sounds designed to punish attempts."

"I wouldn't know about local magic beyond what I saw on you, but it does seem rather... Harsh. Compared to the kinds I know."

"Are there any kinds I can just... learn and take home?"

"I am tech support, not a tutor. And most of them require an activation, drinking a certain potion or the like, and I don't have access to any of those without losing the door to here."

"I don't mean learn from you, necessarily, I could self-teach out of a book or something... most of them?"

"Off the top of my head, there is a brand of chanting and dancing that has impractically small effects for the effort involved, a discipline of mind arts that people can sometimes go from no measurable potential to a small amount of potential, and a variety of potionmaking that relies on ingredients you are not likely to have access to."

"Damn. Can I buy an activation potion for something later when I have a mattressful of spheres?"

"Yes, those are definitely for sale. You'll want a test kit to see your potential for them first. They're usually pretty cheap. I'll arrange to deliver a big old catalog to you in the next few weeks."

"Awesome."

He hands her a little red bundle. "This is the medevac veil. I've slipped it into the system under a nonkeyed ghost registration. You'll need to, ah, strip down and then put it on as snug as you can manage and it'll disappear and you can do whatever after that, it'll stay."

"Put it on in what manner?" she asks, tucking it into her bag.

"It's basically a half-ghost jumpsuit with the teleport trigger woven in. So, the normal way for clothes."

"What does it mean for a garment to be 'half ghost'?"

"It has ghost-like properties such as selective intangibility and entity-binding."

"Not particularly. It's a... Soft binding, closer to the way a key is made to fit a lock and not the other way around? I'm struggling to come up with a good metaphor."

"Okay. Is there anything else I ought to prevail upon your generosity for here?"

"I really can't think of anything else until you have a sizable amount of mana stored up. And I don't care about my money nearly as much as some people, an interesting conversation, an interesting problem, and helping someone who, to hear the story, sorely needs it is worth loaning out a few hundred mana."

"Since it's so safe here I'm considering just crashing on one of the couches over there for the 'night', and according to Bar the time in here doesn't all sync up with itself, so if you don't look directly at me I might have a stockpile in the next five-subjective-minutes-modulo-you."

"That would be amusing. I think I'll hang around too if that's the case, see if I can't find some more interesting magic."

"See you later." Bella accounts for five crystals, her medevac veil, and her minter, and goes to snuggle up to the bagful of objects on the couch by the fire.