The roots just sort of sit on top of the roof in a tangle. There's a slightly uncomfortable dry feeling from having them exposed to air. 

Also, as promised, the sand is running faster. 

Well being a holly bush is completely underwhelming but she had to try it at least once. Now she is going to be a seagull. She is pretty into being a seagull and stays that way for several consecutive minutes.

You should find out what your power is before you run out of charge, Liro says. Just try doing magic to the air, or something—maybe in a direction away from us just in case. 

...okay! Seagull attempts magic to the air over there.

A ray of light shoots in that direction! It makes a pew sound! 

Whoa! What was that?

Liro has another attack of giggles. 

Looks like some kind of ray attack—this is why I told you to point it away from us—come over here and I'll throw something for you to shoot? 

She lands and resumes the winged tiger shape again.

Liro appears a red ball in his hand. 

It'll vanish if I let go of it for too long, so you'll have to shoot it quick—three, two, one—

He throws the ball in the air. 

Pew!

A bolt of light hits the ball, and it thuds back into Liro's hand half a second later. There's a neat little hole right through it. 

...nice! 

Neat!!!!

And then Holly runs out of charge and is dropped abruptly back into her human shape. 

Radha taps the screen of her wrist device. 

Eleven minutes, seventeen seconds. That's on the low end of average for your first time, but not by too much given your power use. 

When does it come back? she asks, shifting position from how she landed and brushing herself off a bit.

You recharge slowly over time, Liro explains. Most people get up to full charge over...about a day, I think, on average? I'm a bit slower, Radha's faster. It depends on what you spend your time doing, but the same things don't work for different people. 

There's a correlation between how much someone enjoys an activity and how much charge it gives them per minute, but it's not perfect, Radha adds. 

How's that work when I'm asleep?

Sleep seems to generate about the same amount of charge for everyone; we use it as a baseline. Eight hours' sleep will take you to around a quarter of your maximum. 

I don't usually sleep that long all in a row, me and Crystal fade in and out depending on what's up.

That shouldn't make a difference; when you're asleep you'll recharge at sleeping speed, and when you're awake you'll recharge based on what you're doing, just like any other mage. I suppose it might work differently for you because of cohabiting, but I'll be slightly surprised if it does. We'll have to wait and see! 

But like we don't go totally unconscious like normal cohabitors? I always know what she's doing.

Maybe it'll work like sleep because you're not doing anything, or maybe it'll work like being awake because you're still reacting to what's happening. It shouldn't make too much of a difference—I assume you and Crystal don't often do things the other one would really hate, or one of you would've moved out like your brother by now. 

Wanna come downstairs and we can finish explaining how it all works? 

Yeah!

So they head downstairs into an open-plan penthouse suite. In the centre are a few soft couches arranged in front of a large TV screen. Liro flops onto one of them, which looks to have been specially designed for people with wings judging from the low back. 

Radha heads for the kitchen area over to one side.