"Mmm. I suspect my other people will take much longer to get the hang of it, but perhaps I can help coach them as well as you." 

"That'll speed things up. It's hard to teach because so much of it is about thinking about it in the right way - though I guess some of you folks can read minds -"

"Yes. Our magic is sometimes taught that way, in fact." 

"Which might speed it up a lot even though I do not want my mind read personally."

"I do not mind having my mind read for this purpose, so hopefully I can help the others pick it up faster."

"Mm-hm. I got a light in about an hour but I did it in pitch dark inside my tree, so it was easier."

"Ah, does that make it easier? I can keep that in mind when teaching the others." 

"I'm really familiar with my tree and you don't have to compensate for a lot of existing light if there isn't any."

"That makes sense. Very familiar locations are easier, then, I will plan for that as well. I should probably spend a week just on practicing before I start teaching, so I can convey more. Is there anything else I ought keep in mind?" 

"It gets more complicated from lights on up but the basic principles are the same - you need to know where and on what you're casting. Lights are simple because they only need a where, they aren't cast on a target person or object."

"Could I cast a light on a target, such as, hmm, a book or something? So that they light would stay on it if I picked it up and took it to another room?"

"No, enchanting a thing to glow is a separate spell."

"Ah, so it can be done but would be a different thing from the light I did earlier." 

"Right. Mostly people don't bother with it, fairylights are very easy for anyone who could pick it up at all."

"What proportion of fairies would you say are able to pick it up at all, with enough work?" 

"With enough work? All of them but being - equipped to put in that much work is most of the barrier to entry."

"Fair. In fairies' cases, is the limiting factor mostly - enslavement as vassals to someone who does not leave them time to do that work, or just scarcity of time and resources in general?" 

"Uh, there's also... lack of interest."

"Ah. I really do not understand some people, I think, but I suppose it is a great deal of work to do anything incredible with it. I expect humans will have the same limitation, but if we can eventually set up good schools for it, teach even a tenth of the total population, even if most only learn very basic uses... It would not be gated on having the innate potential, the way Gifts are. It could be so transformative for this world." 

"And then you can all cut it out with the dying quite so frequently."

"Yes." Leareth's breath catches slightly. "It could be so much better." 

"You can... avoid breeding, right, that doesn't just happen all the time whether you like it or not? That might matter eventually."

"Well, people need to have sex to conceive children - do fairies do sex as an activity? Anyway, technically they can just not, but in practice they will anyway. There are some medicines that prevent conception, though not perfectly reliably, and Healers can prevent it or end pregnancies at a very early stage. I would want to study this and figure out more reliable and scalable options, though, if Velgarth is going to reach a point when overpopulation is a risk." 

"Yes, fairies do sex as an activity."

"Huh, I would not have necessarily predicted that, if it does not serve a reproductive purpose..." Leareth trails off. "You do not seem especially pleased about it."