"Of course. Tell me which speed is optimal," Felix says and he starts ramping up speed, presumably at a rate that Kaede can comment on.

"You can stop, I just wanted to see it at work. Hmm."

She tries... taking a wisp of the thing she just saw move, as little as possible, stopping as soon as she starts in case he sees any sign of damage in the original magic.

Felix shivers. "That felt weird but not... bad?"

The original magic doesn't appear damaged.

So if she pulls a bit more it's still... complete?

It is like... a piece is missing, but then it regenerates and is whole again.

The superspeed bits that she pulled are trying to latch onto her. What a clingy sort of magic system.

Isn't it just.

She lets them.

It starts taking "root", producing a shivery sensation all over her body. it isn't unpleasant, but hard to describe with words. Once rooted; it starts growing, it should be a few minutes until it reaches the size of the original.

"So how is it going?"

"I'm getting it," she says, grinning. "I wonder if I'll be able to share these gifts with other people."

"I wonder if you can have more than one gift per lifeforce aspect?"

"Maybe! But in any case, let's see if you can lend me some stamina?"

"Sure thing," Thomas says and he lends her some extra stamina.

And so does Fernando, since neither his or Thomas' gift should be useful at the moment.

So she tries speeding up.

It works. Time doesn't slow down, but rather it expands.

...expands?

A second still feels the same, she isn't going to mistake it for a longer time period, but it is like there is more to a second than there was before, she can act and think more during that time period and fractions of that second are more distinct. This effect scales up as she uses more and more stamina to get faster.

Yep, she'll get up to tenfold speed.

Then she will squint away.

And after enough of that it becomes clear that she... can in fact convert her own kind of magic into lifeforce!

Awesome!

...but that's not nearly everything she wants to know. Can she convert one fuel into the other? How much can she manipulate this? What's similar and what's different between the four of them?

Yes. In what ways does she want to manipulate it besides conversion and transfer? She can probably "smooth" over Katur's lifeforce so it stops being segmented. The five lifeforce aspects have different strenghts and capabilities, besides the relevant things they represent: breath is good for stuff that can perform automatic reactions; stamina is good for the physical and direct; wakefulness is good for mental and sensory things; health is good for the biological and complex; youth is good at resisting things and having a lasting effect. None of these associations are absolute, the superspeed is stamina-based but affects her mentally just fine.

By the time she knows this much it has been a few subjective hours, and she pulls back to reality.

They give her another stamina boost. "How did it go?"

"I can totally convert between your lifeforce aspects."

They can barely contain themselves. "Okay, this is probably the best thing ever."

Thomas clears his throat.