That bit might be shapeshifty? It's all pretty unfamiliar.

"Yeah, anybody can do wizardry," says Saasnil.

"Anybody with hands and a voice and a channeling capacity," clarifies Korulen.

"Why do you need hands and a voice, and what's a channelling capacity?"

"Hands for gestures and a voice for words and a channeling capacity lets you pull power from the reservoir and put it in a spell," says Korulen.

"Is it something you're born with or can you get it?"

"Born with."

"Shame." He'll see if he can develop a channelling capacity in himself later, but he's not hopeful. This magic system seems incredibly unfriendly. He sits down, cross-legged. "What about elves, do they have specific magic?—do humans, here, for that matter?"

"Nah, humans and elves aren't magic," says Saasnil.

He nods. "Okay, so... like I said, I personally find it quite fascinating that other worlds exist and my mind is abuzz with all the possibilities in resource exchange and helping with problems, but why exactly did you two decide to summon random people from other worlds?"

"We're going to show you to Nemaar, we said, remember," says Saasnil.

"Right, but who's Nemaar and why are you showing me to them?"

"Nemaar's this kid in one of my classes and he wouldn't think I could cast this spell," says Saasnil.

"—you did this to prove you could."

"And I can!"

He starts laughing.

"What?" asks Saasnil, disgruntled.

He shakes his head, smiling. "That's kind of a terrible reason to do it and I know exactly what it feels like to want to do that anyway."

Saasnil crosses her arms and huffs.

"Anyway, in like another degree Nemaar will be out of class," says Korulen.

"Okay. So let me try to make my pitch: my world has several problems which it needn't have, and here you have magic powerful enough to pull people from another world. I think this is enough magic to fix a lot of them. I might have magic that will help you fix problems in your world, unless you don't have them, in which case I appeal to your sense of altruism instead."

"Uh, what is it you want us to do exactly?" asks Korulen.

"Not dismiss me as soon as you show me to your friend would be a good start, like I suggested, but if you must, perhaps summoning me again elsewhere? And then, I don't know, I suppose playing guide to an off-worlder wouldn't be too appealing so books, perhaps?"

"We're not actually, like, supposed to summon people," says Saasnil.

"I would imagine you're not. But I am here now, and it may be—something—of me to say so but sitting on a pool of resources like this when I could be using them to help people—not my style."

He continues looking at the ward, trying to understand it, see what makes it tick, surely there's a way to make it go away, even temporarily.

"You can't do anything from in there and we can't let you out, it's not safe," says Korulen.

The ward opines that fuck you.

He does not particularly care about the ward's opinions. It takes a long time to understand magic where he's from, anyway, he's fine with taking a long time to figure this one out, too. It's not like he's doing anything other than look.

"Observe me not suggesting you take down the ward or let me out. I'm pretty willing to be in a ward here or elsewhere for however long it takes to prove I'm not a threat."

"We can't just leave you sitting in our room and we can't move you while you're in a ward."