"Let's go find her, then, before her client arrives."

The redmage's uniform includes gloves and a hood. She blinks at Deskyl.

    "Hello, Ma'am. This is Xaari Deskyl, she's a different sort of mage."

"Hello," says the redmage. "What color?"

    "No color - Xaari, not Tse. They're very rare."

"Oh. Okay. Mivi says you're going to try to fix dwindling."

    "Yes Ma'am. She's just starting; she needs to see how your magic works first. She doesn't need to be there when you use it, though, she can watch by magic."

"- like, watching? Nicaru won't like it if you're paying attention to us while he's seeing me."

    "She'll only be watching the magic, not what you're doing aside from that. But if that's too much, she can skip you."

"I think it would bother most people. Mivi? Come here?"

The redmage's attendant trots up.

"How about you just watch me touch Mivi," says the redmage, "and not spy on private client meetings?"

    "That will be fine, Ma'am."

Mivi takes off one of the redmage's gloves and they lace fingers. Mivi closes her eyes blissfully.

Deskyl tilts her head curiously, and, after a few moments, nods.

The redmage kisses Mivi's hand and puts her glove back on.

    "Once she's ready to try something complicated, she might be able to make it so that redmages don't do anything when they touch people, until she changes their magic back - that won't be very useful, of course, but it will help her learn how to change things about your magic."

"That would be useful if they could really count on it," says Mivi. "They could touch people they didn't want to fall in love with."

Deskyl nods when DZ relays this.

    "They probably won't be able to use their magic at all while they're changed, though."

Redmage and Mivi both wince.

Deskyl gives a wry smile and a nod.

    "It would just be for practice, unless there's someone who doesn't want to be a mage."

"It would be so bad to be stuck that way, though," says the redmage.

Another nod.

    "She feels the same way about her magic."

"Really? I don't think most mages would feel as strongly about it as a redmage," says the redmage. "Not if they'd earned their keep, anyway. We're the only ones who get much in the way of personal use out of it."

    "Xaari Deskyl's magic isn't very much like the kind you get here; she can do more with it, and it doesn't hurt her to use. And one of the things she can do is sense emotions - not as well as you can, but at a distance and all the time."

"Oh, I guess that would be sad to lose," agrees the redmage.

    "Yes Ma'am. So she understands - she can't guarantee that she'll be able to change someone back until she tries it, but she knows how important it is not to leave someone stuck."

They both nod.