"You can if you want. There was - a war? There were a few wars. And my family won some and then lost one, which is how they all died."

"—I'm sorry."

"Technically I never met them, it's very weird. But - thank you."

"Do you—remember them? In whatever way this all, ah, works?"

"Sort of. I know what they were like, I can imagine what I'd be remembering and it's almost like actually remembering it."

She nods. "So—how do you still have whatever the mage did to you?"

"The first time around, I was born with it. The second time around, Nirue thought I wouldn't be complete without it."

"...seriously?"

"Nirue is not a very nice person."

"No, I mean. The average person is not a very nice person. That is just sadistic and cruel—why would she do that—"

"It's what she wanted."

"It's not nice or productive of me to want to form plans to go visit your world and hurt her but I still want it."

"You really shouldn't. She'd probably hurt you worse. She has more practice."

"I haven't told you about the Wars, have I?"

"Which wars?"

"So one of the main historical reasons why people fear and hate metamancers, although no history book will tell you that, are the Wars they waged, where a single meta was a match to an army."

"Sounds a lot like gods," she says. "I still wouldn't try to fight Nirue if I were you."

"What could she do that's so bad?"

"She's the one who put that magic thing on me that you got rid of. If she put one on you, and it got between you and your magic..." Ruava shrugs. "She could do anything she liked."

"How long does it take for that thing to be—put?"

"I don't know. Maybe hours, maybe seconds. Maybe she can make you sleep and then take as long as she needs."

"I don't think she can do magic without me noticing, and—destroying magic, making it stop, is the simplest action I can take. But, granted, I'm not about to go fight her head on."

"Yes. Please don't fight her. I like you and I don't want you in her hands."

"I won't. Not without overwhelming power that can solve every problem in your world ever, with her as only one more of those."

"Okay, good."