"More like you try to use it as though you had it already?"

"And you do that enough times and it starts—being true?"

"It sometimes works on the first try! Until just now, nobody knew for sure that people did actually get new powers and weren't just slowly discovering the ones they already had!"

"But did it never happen that someone tried to do something at one time, failed, then tried again and succeeded?"

"I wouldn't be surprised to hear it had happened, but I'd be a little surprised to hear it was common?"

"So people just try doing a magic thing, fail, and never try it again?"

"...When someone tries something and fails and tries it again later and it works, what it seems like to them is that they were doing it wrong the first time, not that they didn't have the power and then got it later. Does that make sense?"

"Ah. Well that seems pretty well designed to be confusing."

"I would be really surprised if I found out someone designed it! I think it's just that people assumed it worked that way, and the gods were too busy raising mountains and gilding lakes and murdering each other to correct them."

"I wonder if there's anything else I could figure out about it that nobody else knows for sure."

"There might be!"

"I'll stare some more," she giggles.

Then she squints at Ruava (and, metaphorically, at herself and her magic) and tries to make her very immortal and immune to every disease and all that jazz. This is very important because Ruava is very important and should live forever.

(Does her magic react?)

Her magic... ripples a little? But it doesn't award her a relevant power on the spot.

Hmmm. Can she poke it where it rippled, does it do anything...?

It's back to being the same old vague undefined magic-blob now; the ripple left no permanent trace.

She does it again, this time trying to hold onto the ripple.

Ripples are not known for being easily held.

Well it could have been a metaphor. "The magic's definitely reacting," she informs.

"I wish I knew anything about how getting powers worked..."

"It's alright, we'll figure it out." She beams.

"We will!"

"So: back to our journey North?"

"Sounds good!"

So they walk until they're far enough away from the town and up they go again. Flight: so convenient.

"I might just try to get a flight blessing first so I don't waste mana now," she muses.

"Might be a good idea!"