Someone is standing over him.

"Welcome, wanderer."

"Thank you," says Blair, noting that actually 'wanderer' isn't such an inaccurate term for him, even if he didn't wander here himself. He sits up, grumbling a little. ... At least he doesn't have a shadow on top of him anymore.

"So what's my fabulous prize?"

The angelic creature hovers with a faint thrum, a faint shimmer surrounding its metallic wings.

"My aid, as a servant of the Creator. No time shall pass while we are here, but once you leave, I will be unable to aid you again. I may answer your questions, or grant you whatever is within my power. If you wish for suggestions, the Creator has left me a list of gifts that I can bestow upon you: each will cost me one-fifth of the holy energy available to me."

".... Okay. What are the limits of your power?"

"I cannot act outside this place, and even here, I have a limited amount of strength. I may grant you gifts or abilities to take with you outside this place, or change how you will be fit into the fabric of the world when you leave."

"But not, say, put me and my sister back on Earth with a million dollars."

"Alas, no. But I can grant you money in the new world."

"Good to know. But more importantly - what's the new world like?"

"It is a place of both magic and technology, but the shadows have overrun it. It is not so terrible - so long as one avoids their attentions."

"And if one specifically volunteered to not avoid their attentions? What then?"

"Then you will be glad of my help."

"Mm. What's the list of pre-packaged gifts?"

"A compass to anything. A store of mana. The ability to dismiss your familiar. 500,000 credits. A pair of portal rings. The ability to sense danger. Impossible weapons and armor. Any single option from any of the cards you have seen thus far, though some may require more energy for me to create or give to you."

"Expand upon dismissing my familiar, and the portal rings?"

"If you are given the ability to dismiss your familiar, you may make it vanish completely from the world with a short ritual. While it is dismissed, your soul will return to your own body, and you will be unable to transform: however, you will be indistinguishable from a non-Majokko, making it difficult for Shadows to sense your presence. Repeating the ritual while your familiar is dismissed will summon it again.

The portal rings are approximately the size of a bracelet: they are unbreakable by anything but the most powerful of magic, and anything that enters one ring will exit from the other, regardless of the distance between them."

"Hm," says Blair, not really liking the idea of not being able to transform. "Expand upon the impossible weapons and armor? How are they impossible?"

"They are works of magic that should not be possible in the new world - but my Creator's magic may bend the rules of reality to make them possible nonetheless. All are powerfully magical."

"You're being awfully vague with your answers," he points out, "for all of them. Is this the basic overview, or do I get to play 'list things for me' again? Because I'll be honest, I am exhausted and not really in the mood."

"This is the basic overview. I am legitimately here to help you, unlike the Shadows."

"Okay, just making sure." Yawn. "I don't suppose there's anything you can do for my being exhausted without permanently wasting power?"

"That's a small matter."

Blair will suddenly find that he's much more alert.

"You could have simply lain down and rested, since time here is stilled: but this is more efficient. And the glowing walls don't help you mortals sleep."

Blink. He sits up, a bit more energized.

"Thank you. I'll probably ask for that again, later, faster than sleeping. Okay, first of all - was there any information that I did not discern about how my card worked that I should know?"

"Yes. You failed to discern that both Style and Signature have supernatural non-cosmetic effects, and were assigned a weapon type by the Shadow. Additionally, the Shadow hid many of your powers' cooldowns, limited uses, or mana expenditures from you. Furthermore, the Shadow neglected to tell you that you would be given a female body in the new world. These are the items that occur to me immediately, but I may have forgotten something myself: the Shadows' lies are often surprisingly subtle and complex."

".... Ah. Damn. What effects did my chosen Style and Signature have, and what weapon type was I assigned?"

"Your Gothic Style will grant you the ability to manifest five illusionary clones of yourself, and swap places with one of them every fifteen seconds. Your Ribbon Signature will allow you to bind, grab, or throw nearby enemies with a small expenditure of mana. The weapon type you were assigned was a paper fan."