"The longer your life, the more obvious your aura, and the more unsettling you will be to others."

Live a long life alone, or give up your future for a chance at companionship? Decisions, decisions.

That's a tough one. Maybe she should come back to it.

"What do the Scholarship and Programming talents do exactly?" she asks next.

"Scholarship will grant you mastery of a single area of academia. Programming will grant you fluency in a single coding language, and the talent to learn others."

Useful, but... she doesn't like the idea of just putting talents in her head like that. Maybe one of the ones for the body.

"What about the Gymnastics talent?"

"You will be a prodigy of physical movement, having mastered one area of gymnastics."

A sense of absence, as the golden chains shape the shadow's mouth.

"Can I choose which area, too? What are the areas?"

"Yes. Any that you can think of. Aerial acrobatics. Tumbling. Parkour. And so on."

How generous.

Parkour is closest to what she already knows... okay.

Quick review: She wants agility and learning ability, the closest possible appearance to her own, a Gymnastics talent in parkour, and she isn't sure about the lifespan and she still needs to pick the manifestation and etching and techniques of her aura.

"What can I choose about the manifestation of my aura, and what other effects will the choice have?"

"There are six possible aura manifestations: The Dread Lotus, the Lilting Lotus, the Jade Lotus, the Hidden Lotus, the Brilliant Lotus, and the Spectral Lotus. They have no effects on your other selections."

"What are each of the manifestations like?"

"Each lotus consists of five powers. I will explain each in turn.

The Dread Lotus is a dark, shadowy aura.
Firstly, it makes your every movement graceful and hypnotic.
Secondly, it lets you slow your falls and levitate as a physical effort, as fast or slow as you can walk or run.
Thirdly, it allows you to control another being for up to an hour each day.
Fourthly, you may use your aura to move objects within it, as if you were standing anywhere within its range.
Fifthly, no-one will suspect you of wrongdoing until confronted with hard evidence.

The Lilting Lotus is a gentle, protective aura.
Firstly, it allows you to relieve or cause pain with a touch.
Secondly, it makes you regenerate rapidly from any injury, be near-immune to diseases, and purge sickness from those within your aura.
Thirdly, you may mend the flesh and bone of anyone within you aura.
Fourthly, you may create defensive barriers within your aura.
Fifthly, you may restore the recently-dead to full life and health.

The Jade Lotus is a dynamic, pulsing aura of electric potential.
Firstly, it allows you to strike those within your aura with lightning-like spiritual energy.
Secondly, you may drain stamina or life from those within your aura.
Thirdly, you may teleport to anywhere within your aura's range, creating a shockwave where you appear.
Fourthly, your aura will actively retaliate against anyone who tries to harm you, requiring no action from you.
Fifthly, you can use your aura to accelerate your movements and speed your cognition.

The Hidden Lotus is a subtle lavender aura.
Firstly, it makes your footfalls and movements muffled and hard to discern, and grants the ability to see vast distances regardless of lighting conditions.
Secondly, it allows you to become invisible so long as you minimize your physical interaction with objects.
Thirdly, it grants you perfect sight of everything within your aura.
Fourthly, it allows you to conjure simple solid objects, made of lavender light.
Fifthly, it allows you to throw your voice anywhere within the range of your aura.

The Brilliant Lotus is near-blinding to those with aura sight.
Firstly, it extends your lifespan by five seconds for every second that you are alive.
Secondly, it fixes your apparent age at any age you choose, in a range from 7 to 21.
Thirdly, it allows you to view the past through any mirror you touch.
Fourthly, mirrors allow you to view any place you know of within the city.
Fifthly, mirrors allow you to view a single branch of the future.

The last aura is the Spectral Lotus, which manifests as a kaleidoscope of shifting colors.
The Spectral Lotus grants a strong innate resistance to magic. Its remaining four powers may be selected from any of the auras above - but each manifested power must come from a unique aura."

(Agility and learning ability, the closest possible appearance to her own, a Gymnastics talent in parkour, and...)

"How big are auras? What is their range?"

"Most of them are approximately twenty-four feet in radius. The Lilting Lotus is half that range."

She wants a lot of things from the Lilting Lotus, but she also wants the five seconds per second of lifespan, except...

"If I had the aura thing that gave me five seconds per second of lifespan, what would that do about my aura strength? Does aura strength affect anything besides how unnerving I am?"

"The Brilliant Lotus is uncommonly powerful, and manifesting its unbounded lifespan will naturally make you very unnerving. Aura strength otherwise has very few effects."

You're not wriggling out of that one.

"Very few is some. What effects does aura strength have?"

"Stronger auras are easier to expand with training, and easier for those with aura-sight to see."

Nosy.

She wishes she weren't too scared to have her selfspace avatar get up and get a paper and pen and start writing all this down. But she can still half-see into the reflection of her desk, and - yes! - she can make the reflection of a pen write on the reflection of a notepad. The strange magic creature can't stop her.

"Can I choose any lifespan at all when I choose my lifespan?" she asks, and in the meantime she writes:

Agility and learning ability, the closest possible appearance to my own, a Gymnastics talent in parkour;

Etching? Techniques?

"No. You may only choose how fast you age. The options are at half your current rate, at one-quarter your current rate, and at one-eighth your current rate."

The Shadow doesn't seem to notice the mirror-writing.

And a longer lifespan comes with a stronger aura, and a stronger aura sounds like it's actually useful. She underlines the invisibility power, since if she's going to be as unnerving as all that she might as well be invisible too, and adds 1/8 aging rate to the line about her body's properties.

"What can I choose about my aura's etching?"

"There are fifteen possible aura etchings.
First, the ability to levitate as a physical effort, as fast or slow as you can run or walk.
Second, the ability to teleport twelve feet, once per minute.
Third, perfect grace and elegance, and the ability to fall any height and be uninjured.
Fourth, supernaturally enhanced hearing.
Fifth, a supernaturally enhanced sense of smell.
Sixth, inhuman flexibility.
Seventh, speed-reading at full comprehension.
Eighth, perfect knowledge of one scientific theory.
Ninth, natural parkour skill and the ability to adhere your hands and feet to surfaces at will.
Tenth, resistance to heat or cold or electricity.
Eleventh, a mind safe from all intrusion.
Twelfth, general magical resistance.
Thirteenth, your aura is naturally hidden and impossible to read.
Fourteenth, you can detect and read others' auras.
Fifteenth, you can completely disable your fear response at will."

"How many etchings can my aura have...?"

The Shadow's aura bristles, thousands of cruel spikes closing in around her - but the golden chains restrain them, pare them back, and finally force the creature to speak.

"Up to five."

She flinches at its response, but:

Aura etchings: 11, safe mind; 13, hidden aura; 14, aura reading; 1, levitation; 2, grace and not hurt by falling.

"What can I choose about the techniques?"

"There are fifteen again. You may choose up to five. They are Bolt, Burst, Resilience, Clothing, Spikes, Sphere, Beam, Lash, Naginata, Breath, Form, Collapse, Fade, Mask, and Clone."