"Yes! Now hold it in your hand, extend it in front of you with your palm up, and repeat after me."

"Wait, no, first tell me what this is gonna do."

"It's gonna become your staff."

"Oh, right."

He holds it out and prepares to repeat some words.

"Now say: The Key which hides the powers of the Dark! Show your true powers before me! I, Theo, command you under our contract! RELEASE!"

"Oh, yay, a great catch phrase to go with the magic." – Sarcastic enough? – "The Key which hides the powers of the Dark, show your true powers before me. I, Theo, command you under our contract. Release," he continues, not sounding particularly enthusiastic.

The key glows again, not nearly as brightly as yesterday, and grows into the staff. "You'll use that staff to channel your magic and control your cards."

"Do I really have to use that phrase each time? Can't I just 'will it' to become a staff, like I 'willed' Windy to manifest and then dissipate?" At the mention of Windy, he looks briefly sad again, but tries not to show it too much.

"Not yet," he shakes his head. "Just like you have to call Windy's name to manifest it, you need the incantation to make the key obey. And if you want to use a card for a specific purpose, you should tell it so before saying its name."

"What happens if I don't tell the cards what I want them for?" He hardly thinks it's just a politeness thing.

"The same thing that happened yesterday: they manifest. Not all of them will be as friendly as Windy when they do, at least until you've proven yourself to them."

"So they're forced to obey me if I give them an order when I summon them?"

"No. If they still don't trust you they can refuse to obey and even attack you. But if you do that they'll at least think you know what you're doing."

"Oh, right."

“Some cards are more unruly than others, and some cards will only respect you after you master other cards. There is a hierarchy.”

"Which cards are more docile, then?"

“Like I said, that depends. And none of them will be immediately docile, before you capture them. There are fifty-three cards in total, divided in seven groups. Windy is the head of one of those groups, as are Watery, Earthy, Firey, Light, and Dark. The seventh group, Nothing, only has that card, to counterbalance all the others. It is the most powerful of the cards.”

"Oh, I would've thought some would be more docile than others, as a general rule. What can the cards actually do? I know Windy can create a gust of wind, but how precise can she be with them? Can she do a really small blast of air? I know you said it also depends on me, so I guess it's a matter of what she and I could do right now."

"Some of them are more docile than others, yes, but they're fifty-three cards! I'm not about to make a list of them. And it doesn't always even make sense so call one docile or not." He shrugs his tiny shoulders. "The cards embody concepts and embed magic. They can do anything under their concept. You can get more power, and more precision, by becoming more powerful yourself and by having a better relationship with your cards. Right now, you can do a very strong gust of wind, and you can use Windy to entrap some other cards that don't have a fixed physical form."

Oh, wow. "Anything under their concept? Does that depend on what I think is part of their concept, or are there hard limits set out?"

"Both."

"Can Windy, for example, control sound? And if so, how precisely?"

"It can, but not very precisely. Voice and Song are better at that than Windy is."

"Ah, okay. Can I change the colour of this staff?" He waves the pink thing around, not seeming totally thrilled by the new persona implied by it and his new catch phrase. "And I'm guessing there's magic other than the cards, if they were created by someone in the first place."

"You will be able to change your staff once you're powerful enough. And yes, there is magic other than the cards, but the cards are amongst the most powerful artefacts in the world, combining both Western and Eastern magic."