"Ah, too bad. I guess it's only fair, though, since you can't get my magic either. It only happens to girls for some reason. Can I see some evocation, or is it not the kind of magic it's easy to demonstrate?"

Ari snaps his fingers and says “Kleinesfeuer!” A candleflame springs up above his thumb and wavers there for a moment before he shakes his hand and it vanishes. “Evocation’s mostly elemental stuff - earth, air, fire, water, spirit. For more conceptual stuff you’d want thaumaturgy, which is slower and more dangerous. And I still can’t teach you, because it’s part of the same system.”

"That's pretty neat! So what was the next thing you were planning to fight?"

"Astrum Aureus, it's called. An ancient machine sent to investigate the Astral Infection, until it got infected by starstuff itself. At least that's what the dryad says. More relevantly it's big, dangerous, and full of angry."

"Sent by who? And what's the Astral Infection? Does it have anything to do with the stars I've been catching? And can humans get infected?" She had been starting to hope the physics here couldn't support native microorganisms, pathogenic or otherwise.

"Sent by... Draedon, I think? He was an ancient wizard? I'm not all that good with the lore, you'd want to ask the Dryad. The Astral Infection is this little biome that spread from a meteor that fell when I killed the Wall of Flesh. But the biome doesn't spread, just generates these stardust monsters, so I don't think it's infectious anymore. And the fallen stars have nothing to do with it, they're just fallen stars."

"I only just had a Dryad move in on my island; good to know that they know about stuff. If the Wall of Flesh looks anything like I'm picturing, I am so glad you killed it." 

"Yeah, the Wall of Flesh is gross as hell. And summoning it kills your Guide, and waiting for a new one to show up is annoying and he has a different name than the one you were used to and it's... kind of traumatic, actually?"

"Your guide died? Oh no, that's so sad. I know they aren't real but it's almost like they're trying, you know?"

"Yeah. I dunno. The new guy's exactly the same but I liked Wyatt better. And he died, and I found him in his room... I think something kept his body from disappearing until I saw it. Usually everything just evaporates after a couple of seconds, but his body was still there when I got back, and it didn't go away until I went into his room. And then it was like the world went crazy, with the Astral Infection and the Hallow and the Corruption spreading and everything, and I just. Wish he was here."

" . . . Do you want a hug?"

"A hug would be nice."

Ari gets a scaly, four-limbed hug. Margaret is surprisingly good at hugs for someone so metallic and reptilian-looking.

Ari hugs back for a few seconds, then gets jittery and ducks out. He starts rummaging through his chests some more. "Am I missing something? You've got armor, spells- oh, I should give you-" He comes up with a blue glass bottle with a flower poking out the top, and a stacked blue-and-gold potion, and tosses them to her. "That'll let you keep firing for as long as you have to, without having to wait for a recharge or drink the potions yourself. Just hang the bottle from a belt somewhere and keep the potions in your bag and it'll drink the potions for you when you run out of magic."

"Oh, awesome! Presumably that will stop working when the potions run out? But I can learn to make more." She puts the items in a pocket, which promptly seals itself shut.