"I think I might have heard something about soul sacrifice, so, yeah – just didn't realize that was the, what the sigh was about."

"...soul sacrifice?"

"Just, like, bits of it." Pause. "For the more powerful spells or something. Not totally."

"Are... they using spells of that kind?"

"I don't know," says Eva. "If they are, I don't think it's often, but they did mention it as a risk if you get too far in, I think."

"Ah. Yes, it is a risk. Magic needs—a sacrifice. It has laws of conservation, you can't get something out of nothing. For powerful beings, like demons or very strong witches, that sacrifice is merely their own magic, of which they generate more. But for a human to even become that powerful they need to have started somewhere, by sacrificing something before they had that magic."

"If only it were possible for nice people to cheat at it." Sigh.

"Nice people... have a harder time at it than others, actually."

"Is it because they don't make deals with the non-literal devil?"

"Partly, but mostly because you can sacrifice something that doesn't belong to you to do magic."

"Oh, wonderful." Pause. "Do vampires have things we can sacrifice, can we turn them into magic production somehow, if we can catch any?"

"...possibly, but there's also the taint this causes in you, when you do it. The more magic you do, the less reluctant you are to do it—it gets to be an addiction. And the more magic of a given kind you do, the less reluctant you are to do it, and that includes sacrificing other people."

"And it's not just limited to, like, 'less reluctant to sacrificing vampires'." Sigh. "Okay, so, magic is awful and should only be touched in small quantities lest you become evil or lose something major."

"That's the gist of it, yes."

"Well, I–" Pause for the bell. "Should probably get going to lunch."

"Probably, yes. Enjoy."

"See you later."

And off to lunch she goes.

Where her favourite witch is eating, spots her, and raises an eyebrow.

She shrugs and sighs, then gets out her phone.

Sadde will get a text saying: Looked around a bit, found a few vamps, probably need help to find any more.

During the day?

Underground.

Oh. Why?

There was a cave in a dream, we were trying to find it. Got attacked in a mausoleum last night, there was a secret entrance, it got dark, very spooky and all.

Huh. Was it one of the Nightmares?

It was like a prophecy thing? Or like clairvoyance or something, nothing much nightmarish about it.