"Neat. Then I guess a couple centuries of being in your debt is a fine price to pay for watching the show. Who's Syntropy, by the way?"

"The thing slash place slash entity where new matter coalesces into universes. Allegedly where The Entity Sometimes Known As Yahweh's work touches the side of reality firmly enough to become actuality. Opposite side of the cosmos from where things fade off into decay and the void and fall apart, which is what Entropy looks like at... the scale of real reality, I suppose."

"Neeeat. Well, you can count me in on Syntropy side. As a freebie even."

"So, how does awakening work? Some horrible ritual sacrifice? Is blood involved?"

"That's special occasions only, unless you're into it or a Lamia. No, all that's needed is for me to take your hand, and then I'll walk you through a mental depiction of the decisions you need to make. It won't happen until both you and I agree it's ready, and the choices you make will stay stable if we step away. Such as to write a contract when I've seen what you're capable of but before it's final."

Simone extends a hand.

"Beam me up... I don't think I quite caught your name actually? I'm Simone ([siˈmoːne]). Or, well, I guess I'll be Simone ([si.mɔn]) now?

"Tesera," she says, and pauses to pull a pair of chairs out of her hat, "Alright, let's see what we have here..."

As she takes Simone's hand, there's a sense of double vision, and a field of clouds surrounding faint stars. It sweeps around, and as part of it passes Tesera it clears up, revealing eight points of light, each of which have two swirls of color orbiting them around a more complex pattern within.

"Eight races. And some unusual ones, too... And you're at the highest tier of potential, you'll reach rank 5 magic if you want it. I was pretty sure you would be, but not certain until this began."

"A pleasure to meet you, my lady."

It's not exactly clear when Simone stopped questioning what she's seeing and just accepted it as magic but has clearly happened now.

"That sounds good! What races do I get?"

She smirks at the compliment. Flattery will get you... somewhere, at least. "Let's see.. Neutral like everyone, Lamia, Erinyes, Jotun, Hollow - don't be Hollow, it sucks to be Hollow - and three odd ones - Sword, Phlegethon, and Xenomorph."

"Sword. How is sword a race. And definitely not Xenomorph, I don't want to look like I come out of an horror movie."

"Sure I can't convince you? They're very new, only a decade old, you'd be near-unique, and so likely valuable. And more human-looking than it might sound."

"Could you do the mirror-image trick again? It's probably going to be a no, but I'd feel silly refusing it without having seen it."

"Better way. Reach out and grab that light - this one here - and you'll get the sense impressions of being one. It doesn't commit you to anything - you'll want to try Sword as well, it's better than explaining."

It feels... powerful, primal, fitting to her instincts. She'd still have boobs, which is weird considering that she would not be a mammal, really. She would even lay eggs.

And those eggs are where she would get her magic juice from??? Oh hell no.

"I'm not going to lay eggs for mana!!!"

"It's honestly more convenient than a lot of them. Like, really, lamia have to eat people. But if you won't, you won't. Sword, then? They charge from combat, and it looks like you're the type that can pair particularly closely with a wielder if you choose to." 

"Yeah, no, I'm not into eating people. I'd also be surprised by picking sword, but it seems less controversial."

She grabs the sword light.

Ok, first thought: she's hot. Second thought, this isn't her real body, the sword is, which feels weird, but maybe she can get used to it.

Her energy comes from... battles. Uh. That's not great.

"Would I be able to recharge from sparring?"

"You know, good question, let me see..." She reaches out and touches the same light, focusing on it for a few moments. "...Yes, but very slowly, and the usual boost from a long fight won't help as much as usual. If you take a strong wielder bond, you share mana capacity and rate of gain both, as well as most of your magic - sweet deal, if you trust them, and fighting while synced up thoroughly is supposed to be as good as sex."

"Well, that's suboptimal. Also, as much as I'd like to... sync up with you I don't trust you enough yet. I dunno, being a sword feels so... violent? I act all badass and everything, but I've never hurt a soul. And I have a vague feeling that there is something to do with immortality and further violence?"

"There is. You'd be tough, but if you died the sword would need to take a life to wake back up again. ...I should back up. The important qualities of choosing a race. Four of them. Their immortality, or sometimes lack thereof - Neutrals, mostly. How they charge mana. How much mana they can store and how quickly. And which two elements they're tied to, which reduces the cost of magic associated with them, and unlocks some elemental magic if you're not a sorceress - but you seem like you'll make a good sorceress so you just need to worry about price."

"Yeaaaah, no thank you. Immortality is worth a lot to me, but 'one human sacrifice per death' is more than I'm comfortable with. On the other hand, this seems to exclude Neutral. I am going to favor a race with immortality, if it's not something terrible. Ok, let's go through the others. Lamias eat people and, see above. You said Hollow was a bad idea, why? Also what were the other options again?"

"Doesn't have to be a human life, a pig will usually do though a minnow wouldn't. Unless it's a golden fish, those work even for things that need human sacrifices. Hollows are a floating suit of armor with nothing inside, feed on metal, never touch anyone ever again. Fine if you're born to it, but nobody awakened into it seems to cope well. The others are Jotun, Erinyes, and Phlegethon. And... Neutrals aren't as bad as it sounds. They live two centuries and just about any witch can save up for a revival and reyouthening in a century. Certainly a rank-five one like you'll be."

"Ok, that's actually way more acceptable. Still not amazing, but much better. I would take it over no immortality, but probably won't over whatever other options I have. What's up with goldfishes? I just thought they were dumb fishes? Oh yeah, heck no to an Hollow, I definitely want to touch people, feel things, eat!"

"What are the immortality methods for the other three? I guess if there is a reasonable path to immortality for Neutrals it's not completely off the table."

"Some angel or something claims to have invented golden fish, they're very shiny goldfish who reproduce once a decade and are metaphysically, but not cognitively, equivalent to humans. I think it was meant to wean us off human sacrifice, which some covens do directly use as part of some ritual magic. I'm not in one of those, but I trade with them. Jotuns have a tiny homunculus in their heart and it takes three days two three weeks to break free and regrow - less if they're fully giant at the time. Erinyes die and pop up in another body somewhere on the planet, unless they're banished for a century with a ritual murder. And Phlegethons turn into a wildfire on death, and come back if it takes a human life or is fed an intact human heart from a recent death from other causes. And anybody can buy the same immortality as Neutrals, including for friends and family."

"What do you mean by 'pop up in another body'? The Phlegethon one also looks iffy, but I guess one could obtain hearts that would be unusable for transplants. Regrowing from a tiny homunculus seems fine though, how do Jotuns get mana? It's going to be something horrible, isn't it? I feel like I'm starting to warm up to just buying my immortality in some other way and picking a race based on everything else."

Including for friends and family.

"Including for friends and family that are still alive, I'm guessing?"