"I can pay. I have some money. I guess I won't be needing it for much else."

"Yeah; I don't think the money here's accepted anywhere else..."

"You said it was a backwater."

"The lack of magic makes Earth seem pretty uncivilized."

"So everywhere else people just- do magic? Like it's nothing?"

"Not everyone really has the knack, and most people with the knack can only do a little. But - for most places with functioning education systems, it's something like a third or a half of people can do something supernatural even if it's not technically magic. And you can make magic items, which - the fancy stuff runs expensive but there's a lot of basic items that're really affordable."

"Let's- go find an ATM."

Laugh. "Sure. Do I need to alter my appearance at all, to blend in?"

(She looks human, albeit an oddly and exceptionally pretty human. Her clothes - if you weren't looking too closely you'd probably not really notice her as too odd, but she definitely wouldn't be out of place in a Renn Faire. Close cut breaches made out of a soft material, dark purple, and a white flowing blouse or possibly dress over it, with a dark purple vest and a segmented leather belt, under a gauzy shawl shot through with silver specks. There's leather bracers on her arms, barely visible under her voluminous sleeves, with exceptionally fine detailing and silver inlay, and she's wearing a silver circlet with purple gems draped from it, as well as an amulet of silver and wood. Her boots seem to be made of green leaves layered over each other.)

"...Yes? But no one's going to stop you in the street, I think."

"Hm... Hiding magic items is a pain sometimes..." Shrug. "If it won't cause problems, don't think I'll bother."

"What magic items do you have?"

"Hm... The circlet makes me smarter and more charming... The necklace and bracers make me harder to injure... Boots make me springier. My shawl heals me if I fall unconscious... Belt turns into a sword. Ship's also magic, and it's got a lot of common magic items on it - the stuff that purifies air and water isn't working, but there's also a chest that keeps food from spoiling, a stone that'll clean you, a few magic lanterns, and the spelljammer helm lets me take the ship into the Astral Sea safely. - Oh also got something that'll let me land safely if I take a bad fall."

Grin. "Wanna try one?"

"Yes."

She takes the circlet off her head and walks over to plop it on Ellie's.

It's not a profound increase - but if she pokes her own mind, she's now notably smarter and better able to figure out social graces.

"...That is. Really weird."

"It's great, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Pretty cool."

"That's one of the pricey ones - but getting good at magic's pretty lucrative..."

"Is that how you make money?"

"I'm mostly a very well paid lawyer - which, admittedly, is half because of magic. Work's more consistent. But, yeah, I sell spells sometimes, and I sometimes do things like 'go fetch my client's grandmother's magic sword from her cursed tomb without breaking any laws or contracts anyone's under,' which is rare work but exceptionally well paying."

That startles a laugh out of her.

"The number of people who want things fetched out of cursed tombs is astonishing!"

"I presume the tomb-cursing industry is similarly busy."

She laughs. "Exceptionally so!"

"That sort of thing went out of fashion on this planet three or four thousand years ago."