There's a fog, and lights within it.

"Right. I see... wolves who charge from hunting trophies. Golden sun-children who charge from healing. Revenants, they're not quite alive, static bodies and charge from enduring unpleasant sensations. Rusalka, water spirits-"

"I know what Rusalka are, did you miss that my name's Polish?"

"-Yes, actually, it sounded perfectly ordinary for a Brit. The world behind the veil doesn't have the same name trends at all. They charge from keeping long, messy hair. Ideally, six feet of uncombed mess. Not recommended if you want to bear children and have the father - or donor - survive the experience."

"That might do, my hair would be good long and it doesn't need work to keep it a bit neat. But go on."

"I can see it. Especially if you go Godiva. Mmm. But onward. Elf, they charge from meditating,a quarter capacity an hour so four hours a night and no sleep needed. Neutrals charge from sleep, but rather than steady, it speeds up as they stretch longer, a sixth for four hours and two-thirds for six. Generally I disrecommend Neutrals because you have to buy your immortality every century from rank-five alchemists, and most of the rest have a native way. You'll be rank four, which is above-average, less than a third of witches can hit rank four, and only about a tenth five. Daeva isn't on your list, nor is Gnome, which is a shame, I get the sense you'd like their tinkering. And, oh, Pharon - animal head like old Egypt, charge mana from being famous and notorious. And that's all there is, here."

"And you get something out of me being a Rusalka? Wolf's out. Pharon, too. Doubt I'm a natural healer. Protector, maybe, healer, no. Elf's maybe alright if there's no magical way to skip sleep. Revenants and Rusalka, tell me about immortality and drawbacks."

"No, actually I think I get the most out of you being a Pharon, Vargr, Solar, or Neutral, probably. You have the potential to be a True Oracle - a diviner who gets spontaneous information not asked for when you view the future. Each race has affinities, two elements. Most magic, except elementalism, has three that go with it. Divination is Mind, Soul, and Life. Solars are Mind and Life. The other three are all Soul - Vargr and Pharon have Beast, Neutrals have Body. Revenants are Death and Body, Rusalka are Death and Water. Death also does rot and undeath and things like that, Life also does light and sort of conceptual spiritualism."

"I am distracted. What are the elements?"

"The standard order is Water, Fire, Soul, Body, Nature - plants and biology - Wind, Earth, Beast, 'Necro' (I prefer Death), Metal, Blood - also flesh - Mind, and Life. There's some debate over whether Shadow is its own element. Hespatian magic uses sex, death, or for the strongest rite both to harness the plane of shadow, but there are plenty of planes that aren't pure elements."

"That's not 'voluntary sacrifices' death, is it?"

"Not usually. The rank-five rite demands a willing human virgin who initiates themself ritually, has sex with the ritualists with witnesses, and then is killed. Revival is, unless something goes very wrong, possible. But the power it grants is only useful for serial killers. Most who seek it, won't bother fulfilling promises to revive the sacrifice. Killing an unwilling person is only useful for rank four, but that's also the most useful of the rites. I've seen it done. Both. I've never taken part. My coven has never done either. I think even rank five builds... very bad habits. Callousness and predatory perspectives on your allies. It's no more effective than sex, in some ways less, and I think it's a mark of rot that most covens assume they're the default."

"If you wanted to remove any temptation for me to find a different coven, you've succeeded."

"I wasn't setting out for it. But yes, I strongly recommend against joining a coven without learning a lot about them first. And... none of them are friendly to anyone trying to learn. Not even mine."

"All right, back to immortality. Elves, Revenants, Rusalka, Solars."

"There is sleep-skipping magic, and it's pretty cheap. The elves used to rule Earth and several other Earths and built shrines that they can resurrect at, whichever you visited. Rusalka's spirits go to the water, and if someone drowns, they revive. But a Necromancer could find their spirit and bring a revival potion - also rank five, but they don't age and it's just insurance. Revenants are very tough, they have a whole conceptual bodily integrity thing, but if they do die, they are revived by being placed in the grave of someone who died cursing death. Recent deaths would revive faster, but a century-old corpse would only take a decade. Solars take their eyes and place them in the sun's direct light on the solstice."

"How many people drown in the Thames a year?"

"Interesting question... About thirty. Mostly suicides. Though you'd probably move."

"That's enough I wouldn't feel bad about having someone drag my spirit back here, rather than a potion. I do like Rusalka. And Revenant, but that revival sounds bloody bothersome. Drawbacks of those two?"

"Rusalka it becomes actively painful to cut or style your hair. It never stops growing, and anything more orderly than a ponytail will hurt. You have a sense of the greatest regrets and grievances of spirits around you, and living people if you learn how, which can be distracting and unpleasant. Revenants can't change their form. No losing muscle or taking lasting injury, but no gaining it, either. Even temporary changes like cosmetic hexes or trying out having a cock for a few hours are harder to do and don't last as long."

"Trying out- what, that's just ordinary recreational magic?"

"Not just recreational, most witches have children that way. I don't know which of my mothers bore me but the other one certainly used it. Why, want to take a break and see it firsthand?"

"If I acknowledge out loud that you're gorgeous, and that I want to bury my face in those impossibly perfect tits and spend half a day in bed with you, will you stop teasing me about it? It's not like we haven't both noticed."

"Oh, lovely, of course not. Most ladies I awaken take half this much teasing to be far too distracted to be checking whether I'm messing with them. No, I'm not going to stop until you're distracted. I just must see how far it goes."

"Brilliant, you're just going to keep escalating until you get us arrested for public indecency, then. Fuck it all, Rusalka, and get on with it."

"If you wondered what to do to make me want you carnally... Don't worry. You already are. Right, the other major decision is Sorceress or Academic. There's another option but I don't recommend it - being perpetually in debt to a godling isn't great even if it's a nice godling. Sorceresses learn magic by intuition and physicality, Academics by study."