Mostly people have to try doing magic and see what happens, Radha says, but you need to transform first. We should take you back to our base and you can experiment! 

Okay! I can turn back later for Crystal, right? We're both okay with being like so or I woulda found somebody to swap noses with ages ago but if I can do whatever...

Yeah, you can always turn back to your original shape. You're gonna have to—staying in magiform uses up energy, and you run out a lot at first. I'm trying to get to a point where I can stay like this all the time but I haven't managed it yet. 

Okay! Wow, if I don't have to worry about being able to undo everything later or whether she'll like it I can do all kinds of crazy stuff, can't I? Can I be a tiger? A tiger with wings. A tiger with wings that's blue. Oh or a GIANT BEE. I don't know if I'd actually like being a giant bee but can I try it?

Liro cracks up.

Yeah! Just maybe not in the café, we'll fly you over to our team's base where there's more room and you won't get everyone staring while you experiment. 

If Holly and Crystal are done eating they can leave right now, in fact. 

They are done eating! Holly bounces out after the winged people. I could be like an opposite demon! There's a kind that would be pretty if it weren't slimy and black.

Liro is still laughing as Radha holds out a hand to Holly-and-Crystal.

You okay with me flying you? We can take the tram instead, it's just a little slower. 

I guess I'm game if you do this all the time and haven't turned anybody into a splatter!

I fly non-mages about on a regular basis and have not turned anybody into a splatter! My power is very very good at stopping things falling, so even if I slip for a moment I can catch you. 

Okay! Is it hard to learn to fly?

With wings, they sort of come with the instincts built in? With Radha's power, it's no effort at all because she's doing all the work, Liro jokes. 

Ready? 

Ready!

And then they can all three go whoosh up into the sky, high enough to go over the tops of the skyscrapers. 

Liro was right, it doesn't take any effort at all to be carried along by Radha's power. She and Liro are using their wings to do their own flying, though.

"Wooooooo!"

I know! Isn't it fun! 

But far too quickly they are whooshing back down again to land on the roof of one of the skyscrapers. 

Holly puts down the backpack and spins in a circle. Okay, how do I be stuff?

Liro bounces on his toes, infected by Holly's enthusiasm. 

Should be pretty intuitive! There's only one thing your magic can do right now, right? When you're not transformed, the only thing you can do is transform. Push on that, and imagine what you want to look like. 

GIANT BEE GIANT BEE GIANT BEE

And now she is a giant bee! (The magic helpfully fills in details she forgot to think about, so she is a bee that works and can fly.)

...Liro doubles over with laughter again. 

GIANT BEEEEEEEE takes off and buzzes around! It's giant for a bee but not for a person, about three feet long. And fuzzy.

Don't go too far away, Radha warns. If you run out of charge and drop out of the sky I need to be close enough to catch you. 

In the back of Holly's mind, there's a synaesthetic sense of how much 'charge' she has left, like an hourglass running down. The metaphorical sand is pouring pretty fast! It might only last ten minutes or so. 

Well that's limiting and if she doesn't get that long she will try all her other ideas instead of flying the whole time! She lands and tries BLUE TIGER WITH WINGS. The wings are also blue. They have feathers. She flaps and takes a turn around the building and lands again and she's a golden demon, snakescaled and dozen-legged and gracile, and she skitters around and decides that's too many legs. She turns into a fox, a white fox, but that makes Crystal sad even though Crystal only knows about it in the abstract, so she tries being a hummingbird instead. Can I turn into plants?

You can! It takes a little more charge to maintain, but it can be worth it if it's something you really want. 

The magic's sense of how long it will last fluctuates with each change of shape, although never all that far in either direction.

Radha and Liro seem content sitting on the roof to watch. Liro is playing with patterns of gold feathers on his white wings. 

Holly is going to be a holly bush just for kicks! She completely forgets to think about how having roots will work on the roof of this building!