"Cool, potions! No armor? Are you going to fight all-natural as usual?"

"We could speed up your learning how to use Gabe's shield crystals, but I am not sure how well you could fight using them."

"I am most worried about whatever will be in the palace. I am not sure whether dodging will be better than shielding, but that has tended to be my strategy." To Thomas: "So that probably answers your question. My default attire is," and he fetches it from one of the piles of furs there, "a vest and a leather belt to attach my bow and axe, leather wraps for my hands and feet." Shrug.

"I have been enjoying being all comfortable. But I think I will don my clothes for the occasion. Got to look my best for a queen, witch or not. If we have at least a day or two I think I will spending them making myself a nifty weapon and getting used to it."

"We can wait a couple of days, sure. I also have a theory about my immortality that I will need to test and it might take a couple of days, too, so I can do that."

"What theory? I think I will make me a hammer or mace with a stone head. I can use the power of my crystals to manipulate it during combat."

"Do you want a forged mace instead, or is the stone part important?"

"The stone part is important, yes. We could try a hybrid design, but I want to be able to manipulate the head and my crystals don't work reliably with metal; they work the best with dirt and sand, but that would be harder to incorporate into a weapon."

"Seems like it's better to just let you do what you'll do. Anyway, as for the theory, I think the respawn magic is related to how long I have spent somewhere, recently, and there is—something—consumed. It felt sort of depleted last time I respawned here, but if my theory is true it will have recharged, since I have been here for a few days now. And probably the highlands base will feel more depleted since it has been longer since I have been there? And so I will want to spend a couple of days there, recharging.

"Or I could be making things up." He shrugs.

"That sounds worth checking."

"It does. If it turns out that my antimagic can affect the bracelets that test would be informative. Which reminds me we never got around to doing the test with magic food."

"Now is as good a time as any."

Henry grows a long crystal spike and pokes a bit of magic'ed food with.

Apparently his anti-magic can suppress the magical effects of food, but not in an explosive way. And the food returns to being magical once it leaves the area of effect.

"This is a good sign for being possible to suppress your bracelet, but a bad sign for me being able to do it, without large quantities of my crystal."

"Why do you think you would need a lot of crystal?"

"It ought to be strong magic. It can reconstitute your body without any delay we could notice, teleport to your new body, and it has been around for a long time. Which points to being that sort of thing that really resists what my anti-magic does. My crystals have been foiled by an improvised kebab."

"I suppose that makes sense."

"Well, I will want some crystals to fight the Witch-Queen then. Oh, what sorts of potions are you going to bring?"

"Healing ones, mostly. I cannot say I am very well-versed in alchemy, I know only the basics."

"Is it complicated to learn? I would be willing."

"I think less 'complicated' and more 'dangerous'. It is the kind of thing where you want someone who knows it to teach it to you, because experimenting with it can be rather... explosive."

Henry has a calculating look for a moment. "Okay, it is probably not safe to suppress a potion and then throw it at a distance to see if it explodes."

"No, but it sounds like a hilarious weapon."

"Well exploding potions in orbs are already a thing that exists."

Snort. "How disappointing," he says not sounding disappointed at all. "I wonder if Henry can crystal-replicate them."

"It was my idea, yes. It might not be safe."