Eva shrugs. "I'm not sure, to be honest: we get all sorts of curiosities displayed in these rooms from time to time."

"Is it ill-advised to poke it to see what it does?" asks Inavet.

"It might be painful, but it's almost certainly not going to injure you. The guild doesn't leave actual health hazards lying around like this."

Both of them nod.

"Thanks," says Inavet, smiling a little.

"Um... I guess I'll get out of your hair, now."

Eva stands there with her hand on the doorknob.

"I mean, you can stay, but it'd mostly be watching me mutter things and swear at paper," says Inavet.

"Says you," snorts Iris, "I didn't touch the athame, and we want me to check your work anyway, so I've got nothing to do." She looks at Eva. "I - hesitate to actually ask 'can I explore the city with you' because it's probably very dangerous, but..."

"Well, if you stick close you might be alright... But it would be awful to accidentally lose you somewhere. Perhaps I could show you around the Sensates' guildhall? It's probably safer, and likely to be just as interesting."

"Sure, that'll be fine," says Iris. "I'm mostly just annoyed on principle about being in a city and not being able to navigate it. Safer option's better. I'm needed to check over the ritual!"

"And also, to, you know, be a person. You don't have a memory backup that will ensure your survival at the moment, don't start doing ridiculous things just because you're not prime. We tried that already, and we don't recommend it."

"She's joking," affirms Inavet, "she does actually acknowledge herself as a person that matters, it's just we've gotten a bit - uh."

"My standard danger level from day to day is 'almost everyone in the world is trying to kill me, because I am the most famous criminal on the planet,'" finishes Iris. Cough. "Sorry about being flippant. I am definitely a person that matters."

"... Yeah, I can see that giving you a dark sense of humour." Eva raises an eyebrow. "Care to tell me about how that happened sometime?"

"I can explain it as we tour?" offers Iris. Since her primary self will be busy being a huge nerd and is only barely still paying attention to them out of politeness and wants to nerd right now.

Eva casts a glance past Iris to Ina, and the corners of her mouth twitch upwards. "Sure, certainly."

Ina has the courtesy to look apologetic, but - she must nerd. It is calling. The puzzle's rules are in front of her and she wants to solve it so she wants to solve it now.

"All right," says Iris, and she goes to follow Eva. She waves to her fellow. "Have fun! Don't fuck up!"

Inavet snorts. "Have fun. Don't die."

Dark sense of humor? Her? Naaaaah.

"Yeah, fucking up and dying would be terrible."

Eva grins, and beckons Iris to relatively-safe adventure!

"Just a bit," agrees Iris, and she follows Eva to have a relatively-safe adventure.

With tragic backstories.

"So," says Iris, "Totalitarian government. It's actually not as bad as totalitarian governments could go? Everyone's been magically engineered to have long lives, war's not really a thing that happens anymore, everyone's reasonably well taken care of - physically, anyway, and natural disasters have been prevented on a large-scale through giant magic trees that we call world trees. ... They also keep the sun from eventually dying, because screw entropy, but that's somewhat off topic."

Eva's shoes click on the stone floor as the pair may their way through the hallways.

"Okay, yeah, so far I don't see the problem?"

"Yeah. Except also the media is terrifyingly censored, most of the people the government goes to give arcany to get purposefully-wrong rituals meant to cripple them, so that their properly ritualed arcanists will always win against them, and - this one's harder to explain, it's like. People are sort of - the term I want to use is made safe. And not allowed to grow. They can be creative, but only with - painting or music or cooking or any number of things that are safe and sanctioned. Exploring is only allowed in designated exploration locations that are patrolled regularly and cleaned free of litter and have clearly marked and well-taken care of paths and you must follow the signage or you'll be fined - that sort of thing?"

Eva takes a moment to consider this.

"... Your government is terrifying and horrible and I want to introduce a vast library of unapproved media to their petty little planet."

Giggle.

"I don't actually want to start a bloody revolution or major earthshaking immediate social upheaval, but - yes. That. Long story short, I was competent enough and - well, a lot of the problems are hard to see when you live in the middle of them? So. Um." She swallows and looks a bit ashamed. "I was competent and loyal enough to get a proper ritual, and then I realized what was going on and, ah, left. They were upset with me, but that's not why I became the most famous criminal in the world.

"You see, I didn't just stay in exile in some backwater town, or something. I gave other people the ritual, too." She smiles, a bit. "And got them magic. And that is when I really pissed them off."

Eva grins.

"You are an excellent and wonderful person, and I was right to offer you world-saving help. I was kind of planning to sort of treat it as a hobby, but... for this, I feel like it might be worth spending some of my 'wish time.'"

Iris smiles and ducks her head.

"Wish time?"

"I work for a multiversal company. Immortality is the standard health plan. I make enough multiversal currency to afford things that people from other universes would never even dream of. That's what the OTC does just for cashiers."

She grins. "But I'm not a cashier - I'm a metaphysical exploration executive. That means I get fully half of the maximum wish time allotment. That's a full minute and a half per year when the OTC itself has to pay attention to what I want."

Eva's hand rises to her pendant.
"Setting up and maintaining my entire self-tree is ten seconds of that."

"Oh my," says Iris, faintly. "Yes, that. Would. Probably overthrow the government pretty handily, wouldn't it."

Eva is having some trouble keeping a straight face, despite the seriousness of the discussion. "Yeah, I try not to let it go to my head."