"Firebirds are... birds that are resistant to fire?"

"Birds that are magical with respect to fire in general and live near the sun, yes. But in human form I'm not more fire-resistant than a regular human or another color of dragon in human form."

"What happens if you get burnt in human form and then shift dragon?"

"Human form is injured, dragon form isn't, human form will still be injured if I reassume it later but it can heal while I'm not using it at standard unaided healing rate so I'd fly to a light and then shift to get fixed."

"What if you get damaged enough to be nearly fatal in one form, can you just do the same?"

"Nearly fatal, yes, actually fatal, lose the form, forcibly reassume natural form, and can't assume a new one of that species unless you're a unique blue."

Blink. "Can you assume a new one of a different species to take up that species' slot?"

"Nope, slot's gone. I'd have to use a new one on turning into an elf or something for everyday, if my human form died."

"Huh. Where do these forms come from?"

"There's some speculation on that, no consensus."

"Do you know any of it? Might help me figure things out, even if all of it's wrong."

"Uh, the theory I like is that there's a world attached to this one which contains a bunch of stuff which spells can assemble into conjured matter, dragons can assemble into forms, etcetera, and we're swapping in and out from there."

"A world no one's been able to reach so far? Hmm. I have no idea whether I'd be able to see that, I didn't even know other worlds were a thing before."

"People are not systematically trying to exhaust the contents of the multiverse or anything and this is a recent theory."

"I mean, you guys got me somehow, right? And that was random, but I hear targeting is possible? Of course, if it were that easy someone'd have succeeded already."

"I said they're not trying, not that it would be really hard."

"Not trying... to even target? Why not? Wouldn't it be a simple way to prove it conclusively, if it's possible?"

"Prove... the theory that hit journals last month?"

"From this should I infer it takes longer than a month to figure out a way to target other unknown worlds?"

"Existing world targeting solutions are, like, I could find your world with you right there as a spell focus."

"Hmm, and a conjured item that may or may not be technically from another world couldn't serve as one?"

"Paper didn't say."

"Huh. Fascinating, anyway."

"Yup."

"What were those books you got for, earlier?"