"We have encountered some contagious magic systems, though I have not picked any up."

"I don't know if ours is properly contagious - your Name and how well it's known feeds into your power, but your power and your accomplishments, even silent ones, also feed into giving you a stronger Name. The Great Heroes and Villains can learn to use it, but I don't know if that will be universal..."

"I do have a name of my own, though I am not sure if it is mystically significant in the same way."

"I'd be able to tell if I heard it, though there's tradeoffs. Your Name being well known gives you power, but if someone Great has your Name they can use that against you - more so the fewer people who know your Name."

"It sounded like one of the Names of the Great to me," Luka says.

"My name is Elesse."

She nods. "That does sound like an actual Name."

"I'm Leya."

Her name rings oddly, layered with potential.

"I can hear... something, in that."

"Potential?"

"Mm. Yes."

"I've been told my Name sounds like that. I'm - not sure what the layers to yours are. They're strange."

"What does the sound of a Name signify?"

She hums. "What it represents, mostly, or what it will represent, or - the associations people have or should or will have when they hear of you."

"So it's a shortcut to reputation."

"Effectively, yes..."

"I see."

"Getting a Name is hard, too, and you're at your most vulnerable while it's still building."

"Is getting a Name a voluntary action?"

"It's hard to do on accident, but that's possible technically."

"What is usually involved?"

"Generally you start out by accompanying someone with a Name on their adventures, learning to fight, and - being useful and well known, effectively, especially for martial prowess. Clearing out tombs helps a lot, there, if they're building up monsters - has anyone explained tombs to you?"

"Not exactly."

"If someone Great dies, a tomb forms where they fell. Usually its size scales with how powerful they were, and usually it has a theme, of sorts, that's - appropriate for the person. Tombs generate guardians, and also sometimes generate monsters that cause problems outside the tomb's proper area. Tombs can repair themselves, but only slowly, and they can be destroyed."

"That seems like.. an echo of their magic."

"Possibly so. I don't know how much - of the actual person remains in a tomb."