"No, the actions themselves have to be completely nonmagical both in execution and detection."

"Is there a limit to how long and involved an incantation can be to get mana cheapness returns?"

"Not exactly a limit; the returns do diminish and approach a certain minimal value, but I don't think they ever actually reach that value—mana's not integers in our system—and most people only write incantations that long and involved academically, they're very impractical."

"No fun cheats with information compression?"

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, write up an entire book's worth of exacting detail, title it something unique, incant the title?"

"Not really. The only way the actual informational content of an incantation is used to affect its spell's mana cost is in how 'commonly' it's related to the spell's effect—a fire spell using the word 'fire' in a common language costs less mana than one using 'fire' in a dead language which costs less mana than one using 'fire' in a conlang you invented for yourself, and writing that book would be pretty much the same thing as this last idea."

"Wonder what Draconic counts as."

"That's an interesting question! One I am not sure I can explore until I figure out whether I can learn Draconic at all."

"Would you need to know it, or just have a few words?"

"Hmm... Having a few words would work, I don't actually need to know what the stuff I'm saying means."

"So that might be worth trying, but maybe don't do anything that costs mana till we have a list and can prioritize."

"Prioritise by what?"

"Value of information and likely mana cost."

"I can actually figure out the exact mana cost before casting a spell, as soon as I bind it."

"Does binding cost anything?"

"Nope. Well, it doesn't cost me anything, an unassisted arcanist would be stuck with that binding forever so they tend to be more careful with them."

"Makes sense."

"I usually keep myself well stocked with mana when I can, so it shouldn't be a problem anytime soon anyway, but yeah." Pause. "Also what time is it, should I maybe be leaving you to sleep...?"

...Kaylo casts a spell to check the time. "Yeah, soonish."

"Okay, so I guess I'll go. Oh, also, I meant to ask, are you single and slash or polyamorous?"

Blink. "...Yes and not particularly."

"Okay! Wanna go out with me sometime? Not sure how the whole thing works here in Elcenia but I'm sure I can figure it out."

"Why do you ask about polyamory if that's not a requirement?"

"If you were not single it would be," he shrugs.