"Okay. I can do a stinging number read. Do you think it'll matter how much it stings?"

"Hmm, maybe, can't predict it in advance, will need to look. Do it without a sting first, though, so I can adjust the appropriate acceleration and know what it looks like and how it differs."

"Sure."

He casts the number 45.

He accelerates to 2x just before.

Is that fast enough?

It doesn't seem to help at all.

...back to normal. "Do it again?"

And now 4x.

Repeat.

Nope, it's still veryveryfast, possibly instant.

Back to normal. "Either this thing's messing with my perceptions or time, or it's just instantaneous."

"That's consistent with observations and some theories," Kaylo says, "and it's more likely than it doing anything directly to your sense of time."

He sighs. "Well, cast something that stings, so I can see whether I can detect anything at all?"

312 stings!

Does his CC—or the magic—or anything—do anything interesting/detectable?

The CC... stretches?

"Do one just shy of sting?"

Kaylo does.

No stretch? And one that just barely stings starts stretching?

Yup.

He reports these results.

"...That sort of makes sense, I suppose," allows Kaylo. "I am really curious what all this looks like when you're not fumbling for words..."

"Hmm, I can do a short telepathy spell and try to send you that? I'm not entirely sure it'll translate—Keo might be better at this than any spell I design—but that's a possibility."

"You designed it? Tell me about it," demands Kaylo.

"Yes, sir," he says, grinning. "The things we call 'spells' are temporary effects triggered by certain actions when performed by an arcanist, a metamancer with arcanist mana, or someone with a scroll made by an arcanist. The exact combination of effect and action is consciously and, lacking metamancer help, permanently bound by arcanists individually, so every spell not in a scroll was effectively designed by the caster.

"Since I am a metamancer I can bind spells for a single use and then unbind them whenever. If I wanted a telepathic effect to communicate that to you all I'd have to do is fully specify it and then choose which actions of mine would trigger it, but I am limited by what I can properly specify which is why I think Keo might have an easier time. I can do a something for just now, though."

"Certain actions such as?"

"Anything that—I guess 'can convey meaning' is as good a way to describe it as any. Gestures, spoken words, written words. There's a tradeoff between mana cost and complexity and usability—a spell's cost is determined when it's bound, and it depends on what the spell does, but gets cheaper the longer and more involved the incantation is. Also gets cheaper when the incantation is in some way related to the actual spell—a fire spell with the word fire would cost less than one with the word water instead."

"If you have a telepathy spell on can thoughts 'convey meaning' in the relevant sense? Or better yet if someone nearby has one, or if Keo's in range?"