Maurabel has the cuddly Lightning checked out again and she's been shopping. There's yogurt and bread and green onions and greens and some kind of tuber and mushrooms and a small whole fish, which she starts cleaning for dinner when Jisa comes in.

Jisa greets both of them brightly. "Hey, Lightning - if there were schools for elementals to learn more about their kind of magic, would you want to go to one?" 

"Why would there be schools for elementals?" says Lightning. She has already braided Maurabel's hair and starts on Jisa's.

"Well, there are schools for human mages, right? And Wood was saying to me before that Maurabel might know things about Wood that he doesn't, because she's studied it." 

"We don't need to make a living, though, by ourselves," says Lightning. "We just fly around and look at stuff and talk to each other. Maurabel's in school so she can make money."

"Mmm." Jisa feels like there's some sort of cultural gulf here that she's not managing to step across, and isn't sure what to do about it. 

"I mean, I also like magic, but I have ten elements to juggle and elementals have one or two apiece and also I'm a very impatient person," says Maurabel.

"- Oh, I meant to ask, I was talking to Wood about what elements I should pretend I have, and what I should and shouldn't be able to do with them - he thinks I should claim I have Water, since I can use my kind of magic to purify drinking water and that's something Water can do here, I should maybe also say I have Fire since I can start fires with magic..." 

"You should say you have Wood, because then if anyone wants a demo you can say you used your own magic as well as Wood's when you were working, and if you say that's your best element Wood'll be able to compensate for anything else that comes up. - every mage has one best element, mine is glass, and best elements are all about the same finesse level even though some people have more not-as-good elements than others. Water and Fire make sense, maybe a touch of Shine if you can do lights, anything else you're going to want to explain?"

"Hmm. I think most of the other magic I'd want to use isn't visible, to people here who don't have mage-sight? Like wards and things."

"Then you can say you're best in Wood, and have a little Water, Fire, and Shine, that sounds normal."

"Sure, and then anything that's not one of those I'll only do in secret. Er, speaking of secret magic, do you have any thoughts on what day would be good to go out into the woods so I can try a Gate home?" 

"Do you need me along?"

"- I guess not? It'd seemed like you wanted to come along, but I could just go with Wood." 

"I would like to but you'll be able to find a time when you're free sooner than a time when I am, if you're in a hurry. I guess I could skip class but it'd have to be one of the ones I take, not one of the ones I teach - we don't get a lot of days off -"

"I know you're busy. I think it might be important, to have help from my world as soon as I can, before there's time for mages to figure out two amulets per elemental or whatever other ideas they have." 

"I can ask for somebody to cover me tomorrow, how about that." She sets down the fish and heads out.

"Thank you!" Jisa calls after her, and then sighs and sits down, poking wearily through her Gate notes. Papa would know what to do about all the stupid complicated politics here, she thinks. Van would know. Instead, she's just very frustrated that it doesn't seem like she can solve all of it right away with secret magic, even though it's silly to expect she could. 

Maurabel's back a few minutes later. "I have a substitute, we can do it tomorrow."

"Sounds good!" She makes a face. "I really hope it works, after all this." 

"Me too. Is there anything I can do to help?" She resumes preparing the fish.

"Maybe it'd help to just think out loud to you while you're cooking anyway? And then one of us might notice if there's something I missed." 

"Fire away." The fish sizzles.

Jisa spends the rest of the time while the fish is cooking talking through her approach to trying the Gate back tomorrow, and does notice a part where she's not sure how something will work exactly, and adds some notes that she should remember to try it other ways if her best guess fails. 

Maurabel is fairly interested in the subject, actually, though less than she would be if she could actually do any of it. She presents Jisa half a fish in yogurt onion sauce. Lightning gets the fish's eyes and some skin.