"Ah, yes, of course." Ashilynn stands up to her feet again. "Would the desk inside be sufficient?"

"Mmmm... For most things, yes, but I suspect you'll want a pretty full accounting of the catalog. We should probably pick a larger area just in case."

Ashilynn contemplates for a moment, rubbing her chin. "...Let's head properly inside, then. I have a laboratory better suited for these things." She smiles to Eva. "It is at the top of house. Shall we go?"

Eva grins. "Certainly: lead the way!"

Ashilynn turns around and leads Eva off the terrace. She pauses at her desk, collecting a keyring, and then exits the study and takes a right. She is light on her feet as she walks, her feet barely making a sound on the floor's stone tiles. The hall is open to the air, and to the left, visible through the pillars and arches, is an atrium courtyard, a level below the walkway. To the right, from time to time, Eva notices magical lamps--currently dark, but each with a glowing crystal screwed into a socket at its base.

The entirety of the house seems networked with very organized, very rigid magic. Apart from the ambient mana, all the magical activity follows very strict flows and currents, creating complex, purposeful circuitry.

It isn't long before Ashilynn ducks off to the right again, leading Eva through a shorter hall, lit from an ornate stained glass window at its end, and with more (active) crystal lanterns secured high on the walls. At the end of the hall, to the left, there is a spiral staircase that gradually climbs up. Ample windows around its outside keep it lit, though it takes a short while for them to ascend.

They reach the top within a few minutes of climbing. At the landing there is a steel door with three locks. Beyond it, Eva's magical senses are abruptly blocked. Ashilynn sifts through each key individually on the ring, without any fuss to her actions, and selects one. "This is my laboratory. I typically use it for isolated magical experiments, so I imagine it will be sufficient for whatever you may have in mind."

Eva nods, absentmindedly pinging the door with some of her more exotic senses. 

"Hmm. That's remarkably opaque. Perception ward? True impermeability? It's rare that I find something that blocks so much..."

"It is insulated against magical interference. It is more for the sake of a controlled testing environment than anything else, but it does prevent outside magic from penetrating inside...and also prevents anything inside from escaping, which is arguably more useful."

Ashilynn slides the key into one of the locks and turns it. A clunk sounds from inside the door as something mechanically retracts. She removes the key, selects another, then unlocks the second lock to similar effect. Finally, after the third key turns in its lock, she takes the handle and pulls the door open.

Eva watches the security procedures with a raised eyebrow. 

"How thorough of you." 

Ashilynn smirks faintly, and her eyes flit to Eva. "It is better to be safe, isn't it?"

The door swings open, a number of large holes inside it where metal bolts have retracted into it...and apparently some where pistons have pulled away from the door and into the wall. Very thoroughly secured. The steel door also seems to be composed of several layers of metal, with some sheets held in place between them, apparently made from zigzagging threads of copper and iron formed into a tight weave. As the door opens, a gap forms in the wall blocking Eva's magical senses, and she can suddenly perceive the interior just as well.

Once Eva has stepped inside, Ashilynn closes the door again, and several of the pistons snap back into place to bolt it again with a loud clunk. She turns the keys in the locks again, then proceeds to a large, mostly empty table at one end of the circular room. The ceiling forms up into a dome above, made of stone and reinforced with steel struts.

She turns to Eva and smiles. "Shall we start, then?"

"Certainly." 

She hums to herself, passes a hand over the table, and objects appear. 

A pair of smooth grey rocks. Crystals in individual cases, with intriguing labels: "Forgotten Song", "Mercury Reaches", "Endless Pit", "House of Cards", "Triumph". A perfect cube of black metal. A collection of little tins and pots. An indistinct ball of pale green light. A tesselated globe the size of a coconut. A curled strip of stiff white paper. A pair of finely-stitched leather boots, and a fingerless pair of leather gloves. A cloth bag that clicks when it hits the table. Silver and gold amulets, and a time-worn piece of bone with a hole through it. A gown of shimmering, hazy fabric. An insistently happy ball of fuzz in a wire cage. A bowl full of a fine red powder. The misshapen skull of a crocodilian beast, almost as tall as Eva herself. (That one goes on the floor next to the table.) A thick cloak of fine red cloth, draped over one horn of the skull.

Eva makes a little 'tsk' sound, and hangs up the translucent gown over the other horn: then she's back to the table again. 

A silvery pin with sixty little stars on it. A brass choker that clunks heavily onto the table. A gold rod a half-foot long, and a tube of translucent material filled with a greenish liquid. A leaf. (Maple? Oak?) A glass jar filled with jellied ears: they look distressingly human, but on closer inspection have an upwards point. Another pair of shoes, made of what looks like thick fabric and a white, rubbery material. A long-handled... bone? Spoon? With... little protruding fingers on the end? 

Eva stretches, surveying the now rather cluttered desk. 

"Should I keep going?" 

"I think that this is plenty for now." Ashilynn's eyes seem drawn to the gown now draped over one horn of the skull. She approaches it and peers down at it. "Can you tell me more about this?"

Eva smiles. "The fabric is Parabola-linen — woven dreams. Gorgeous, isn't it? It doesn't do anything, but it certainly leaves an impression."

Ashilynn reaches down and trails her hand over the cloth to get a feel for its texture. "Yes...it certainly does. It's beautiful."

The dress shimmers as her hands brush across it, suggesting scenes from other places, other times. It has a deep gold color to it, like the memory of sunshine. 

Ashilynn smiles as she watches the cloth change form at her touch. "I do like it quite a lot...how much is it? How could I possibly purchase it?"

"Let me see..."

Eva holds a hand up to her head, then frowns. 

"Oh, of course I can't access central pricing at the moment. Bear with me..." 

She produces an abacus out of the air, muttering to herself as her fingers flick over the beads. 

"Five hundred Udi, a hundred BT, maybe as much as half a Chron and a tenth of an Izikiel... Current exchange rates are..." 

She looks up. "Let's call it two hundred and fifty OTC. As for the payment — I did explain our currencies to you, right? So this would come to... About fourteen years of lifespan, four seconds of vital time, three satisfying victories over nemeses, three hundred and twenty interesting experiences, or an amount of pain roughly equal to being on fire for three minutes. I'm not even going to include the Udi option — the exchange rate is terrible at the moment."

"I see." Ashilynn nods slightly, then looks up at Eva. "Before I make this purchase, I would like to sell some items to you. I have a piece of weapons technology that I could share with you, and perhaps some raw materials. Perhaps we could make an appraisal of that, and of the worth of my od, and from there we can negotiate?"

"What is od, exactly?"

Ashilynn peers at Eva for a brief moment with confusion, before it seems to click for her that she is speaking to a foreigner. She smiles. "Ah, od...yes. Od is the energy within a person's odic field. The mana of their soul, to put it in terms you may understand more clearly. It is the magical component of one's physiology, tied to their health and being. It is also the mana that everyone uses for spellcasting, in some form or another."

"That makes some sense. How does one replenish Od once it is spent? Can one? Does one spend it in the first place?"

"Under healthy circumstances, one's odic field simply replenishes itself from the surrounding aether." Ashilynn clasps her hands before her. "It is accurate to say it is spent for most intents and purposes. Witches and shaman wield their od directly when spellcasting, projecting it from their body and shaping it to accomplish what they wish. But, for mages," she places her hand on her collar, "it is more accurate to say that we create packets with strands of our odic field, allowing us to use the aether itself as fuel for our spells. It is a skill acquired through a great deal of training and knowledge."

Eva raises an eyebrow. "...Packets? How exactly does that work? I'm not sure I'm following."

"There is mana everywhere in the world, which is called aether. One who is skilled enough can project their odic field into the surrounding aether and manipulate it, rather than simply shaping their own od. Imagine it as though you were blowing a bubble: your od surrounds the aether in the same way that the soap would surround the air. Once it is wrapped up properly like that, you may use it for your own spellwork."

Ashilynn peers at Eva. "It is all mana, the question is simply what it is doing and which systems it is a part of. When it is part of you, it is your od. When it is in the surrounding world, it is aether. Does that make it clearer?"

"Okay, so Aether is ambient mana, Od is personal mana, and when you spend Od the Aether flows into you to replenish your Od?"

"Your odic field opens up to allow aether into it, yes. The process takes some time."