"I do have a physical body, thank you very much! Haven't... used it in millennia, but so it goes. No one thought to put an end clause to my contract."

"The magic that was keeping you sealed and dormant within the staff had nothing to do with it?"

"Ehhh... maybe a bit."

"Fascinating. But you never died? Were you ever, well, born?"

"...yes? Well, not like animals do," he scoffs.

"If you were not born in an animal fashion then you are, for my purposes, a spirit of some kind, and my curiosity is sated."

"Whatever works for you." There is a distinct feeling of eyerolling going on here even though the only eyes are little light spots on the staff.

"That being established, how much do you know about magic? Can you teach me to throw fire and lightning, or things to that effect?"

"Not in this form! I can tell you about it, though. As it was thousands of years ago, at least."

"Not in this - well, feel free to tell me about it, I don't want to hare off down every tangent I can find."

"Well, what do you want to know? I advised the Witch Queen of Lemuria for a while, and the Giant-Kings in The Unnamed City, they had their own magic. Very different! They had to work together to create those, ah, those slave bracelets your friend there's wearing... which you're not? Huh!"

"I guess... tell me why you can't teach me to throw fire and lightning 'in this form'."

"Hmm... Well, the most important part of the answer is that the staff binds me from having effects in the world. Other than talking. So I can't cast spells myself to show you. But there is also the part where casting magic is very, very expensive for your personal energy if you don't have something to channel your magic through, like a wand or a crystal."

"Crystals."

Tintin - cackles.

"I can make crystals. What kind? Fist-sized diamond? Ruby as long as my forearm? Sphere of rose quartz as big as my head?"

"—well, yes, all of those," says the staff, and he starts to cackle, too. "Truly? Oh, the marvels you could accomplish—"

"They're so easy to make! Well - if you have molecular forges, that is. Taharqi, I'll need coal and sand and, and probably some bauxite if you can distinguish it - I'm getting distracted, making it is the easy part. Would I be able to make some kind of, of practice crystal, something weak so that if I mess up it won't do much, or should I start with something powerful to make up for my lack of direct tutelage?"

"First thing, definitely the first thing, you don't want to get annoyed by a dust speck in your eye and blow up the house, funny as that would be."

"Excellent, that was my impulse - quartz, diamond, corundum? Diamond would be easiest, probably, but none of them would be terribly difficult."

"For your first one? Salt. You'll want salt."

"I love it! Um. Taharqi may I please have some salt."

Taharqi laughs and shakes his head. "Can you turn salt powder into a solid salt crystal?" Then he pauses and turns to the staff itself. "Actually, is that necessary?"

"Yes, yes, a solid crystal of, oh, I wish I still had my hands, a third the size of a chicken egg?" suggests the staff.

"Yes, I can do that."

"Then I shall return anon," says Taharqi, still grinning and walking off back downstairs.

"You won't be able to do much, mind you, and the crystal will get used up quickly, but—good for practice!"