Unless Sadde objects, Evelyn will do so.

Yes she has several objections to eradicating malaria.

Evelyn would be delighted to hear them, of course, but gosh Sadde didn't voice any of them aloud.

So she tries it.

No feedback.

"Either went through or isn't doable, again." Pause. "I wonder if I can use it to answer questions, make a pen move left if yes or right if no. Since it's magic. Might be versatile."

"Don't see why not try. We could start with questions whose answer we know—perhaps questions whose answer you don't know but Theo or I do, or something."

"Okay, so first maybe try some basic addition, something that should hold true? Or should we focus on something observable, like, is it currently raining?"

"Should possibly go into the kitchen," suggests Theo.

Kitchenwards they go.

"Math first, sure, then rain, then, maybe, I hold some fingers behind my back and you see if you can guess whether it's an odd or even number of them?"

Nod.

So she takes the pen off Sadde, hands the key back to Theo, and then puts the pen on the table. Left means yes, right means no.

Can she get the pen to move in the right direction for whether two plus two equals four?

The pen doesn't move, no. It's a nice pen, though.

It is a nice pen! She was expecting it to move, though.

Sadde sneezes, and bumps against the table when she does that, making the pen move left.

"… Well left is the direction I was going for, with 'yes' to 'two add two is four'."

"Your magic is kinda annoying," comments Theo.

"Yep," she responds. "Quite."

"It could've been a coincidence..."

"As with, what, like all of my magic." Sigh. "Maybe I should pick particular directions, have yes, no, some other options."

"I think just doing it multiple times should be enough to clear up any coincidences?"

"I guess if I get distracted that'd be evidence."

Pen moves to the left if it's raining, pen moves to the right if it's not.

Sadde steps away this time so the coming sneeze doesn't do anything.

Except it does, and the pen twitches to the right.

"Hold up a number of fingers? Then maybe we repeat the tests."

She holds up a number of fingers behind her back.

Left for odd, right for even…

"You know," she says, and picks the pen up. "It might be easier for you to do this if—" And she holds the pen so it's standing on its tip, being held up by Sadde. "If you try to influence which way the pen will fall rather than trying to make it move."