Kanimir goes and pulls what looks like some kind of almanac down from one of the shelves she's allowed to read from. "Any given fey gate isn't always open, but almost all of them have trackable conditions for when they are and aren't," he explains, flipping through it.

"What made them, do you know?" she wonders.

"Fey mages, who work with a completely different system of magic. I know...very little about how it works, which is still more than nearly any other non-fairy."

She looks slightly intrigued.

"A completely different system of magic? What do you know about it?"

"While the kind of magic I practice involves the manipulation of external arcane energies, fairy mages work with power that their bodies naturally produce. Also--" and he explains a handful of technical details that he's had the opportunity to observe over the years.

"That's really interesting."

"I don't find it as interesting as magic which I am capable of practicing, but if I didn't think it interesting at all I would not have risked significant ire in order to learn it."

"How do they end up naturally producing magic...? I guess if you knew you would probably have said already."

He shrugs. "It's an innate ability of their species."

"I wonder if it's the sort of thing I could find out."

"Perhaps. There are a few gates which human visitors can pass through without serious risk so long as they know what they're doing."

"I'd be really interested to find out what their reflections look like."

"It's possible that the reflections of different kinds of fae would be very different, and I don't think I have a safe way to see to it that you meet many different kinds."

"I'd be interested to find out what even one of their reflections looks like. What kinds are there?"

"It would be hard to say precisely, since the lines between varieties aren't very clearly drawn. The most that I can say for sure are that the nobility are their own kind if any are, and that some have wings and others don't. But there is a startling diversity of physical characteristics within the population."

"Hmm..."

"Hm?"

"Oh. I was just wondering if maybe - it probably isn't right, but maybe a lot of them were shifters once. Sometimes if shifters change themselves in odd ways their children keep the changes."

"Ah. It does seem unlikely, under the circumstances."

"Yes..."

"It is possible that they may have similar powers under their own magic, however."

Thoughtful nod.

"How long do you anticipate wanting to stay?" he asks, flipping through the book.

"I'm not sure... what do you mean?"

"We could make a short trip of a few hours, or a trip of a few days in which it would hopefully be possible for you to meet more fairies."