"Who else is there, besides your coven or another group of Hespatians?"

"Ah, politics, my favorite subject. There are nine groups worth mentioning in the power balance of the worlds. The Outsiders make the rest of us tolerate each other - you can seek them out but if you try I will kill you and it will be a kindness. Alphazon has the money, the ORCs have the guns, and both of  them have the lawyers - and more importantly, mortals. Lunabella and  Alfheimr are charming little societies dense with full witches, and the  Watchers are moralizing meddlers with enough support to stay intact. Hawthorne Academy is the boarding school from hell; if you want to reach your maximum possible potential at all costs, you take Professor Hawthorne's curriculum. Arcadia College is the baby sister with big dreams."

"But the real powers are Alphazon, Hawthorne, and Hespatia. Hawthorne will push you to your limits to ensure you achieve them. Alphazon will buy your soul at an extremely rich price. And Hespatia have the people who seek real power. From the shadows, from ancient archives, from secrets passed down from voice to voice. From Hell itself, when need be."

"If you want a course of study through Hawthorne I won't begrudge you. But if you have ambition, and you want safety, and a family? Then you want the covens. My coven."

"And that's entirely neutral, and not at all self-serving or self-aggrandizing."

"Oh, of course not. Nobody told me I had to be fair. But it's all true... Well. Maybe the advantages of my personal coven are overstated. But I'm here, and they're not, and if I wanted to give you the hard sell I'd have to find somewhere... private."

"Well, now you have to tell me what that would be. In detail."

Tesera shifts to behind Basia's chair, pushing against the back of her neck with her robes.

"Well, two things. One, witches are female unless they expend some magic not to be. And two, one of the types of magic everyone has, is 'mothergifts.' A hat, a staff, and a robe, that can be called up on command. Or dismissed. And so guess what magic society really doesn't care about?"

Those sure are some large, soft breasts against her neck and the back of her head. And some extremely obvious implications. And mental images.

"Three guesses and the first two don't count? Right. Bloody beautiful lesbians everywhere. In public. Am I going to see ladies bonking on the side of the street regularly?"

"Oh, it doesn't go that far. And witches aren't most of society. But pretty women walking down the street topless and kissing their wives? Not every day, but any week the weather's good, if you live somewhere busy."

"If you wanted me distracted, you succeeded," she lies, "But let's say I'm probably in, and I look at the magic, and decide whether I need to hold out for more later. Can it fix my legs?"

"Oh, if you join, you can get it anyway, sweetie. And - yes, it can. But the power you get is - basically it comes in points. And some things give you more points, either long-term or immediately. Losing limbs is one of them. And because it's common, there's really good prosthetics. And really good chairs, too. Both of which you can buy with ordinary witch money - it's called kisses, and it's made of the same mana we use for spells. Much easier to get. Most people pass on limb loss, because it takes a lot of getting used to, but especially if you want to be an Academic witch like me it's a good trade."

"Hmmm. Would I keep all the - damage, and things?"

"No, you'd just lose the physical legs just above the knee, any other nerve or tissue damage will all get fixed up. And no one will remember that the legs used to be there but not working, except people on the magic side of the Veil and people you specifically clue in and remind."

"I don't like this Veil. How many times has it messed with me?"

"Statistically, none. I have my suspicions about that, though. There's a friend of your father's who I'm reasonably sure is actually a male witch working with ORC. And things going wrong when he tries to tip off his mortal friend in the Met causing fortune-manipulated accidents that hurt innocents around them is... precedented. But the Veil's needed. The last time it seriously broke, the keystone world was destroyed, echoes of destruction hit the nearest hundred worlds, and the version of that on Earth was the death of the dinosaurs. And now it's the Keystone itself."

"Oh, that's just bloody wonderful. You mean Bob Watson, don't you?"

"That's the one. Can't prove he's a witch. Yet. And to his credit, if he is, he took the lesson and stopped taking risks after that. If you want to track him down more aggressively later..."

"No, that wouldn't do any good. I'll ask all polite if I have to. Before we talk about the magic, I want to hear about any other physical changes. If they're the same as you I think I'll be happy with 'em, but..."

"Aww, you like how I look, sweetie? But no, they probably won't be. Everyone gets to pick a lot of physical details. Physical sex is set, but you can mess around with height, shift your skin color, clean up any moles, most things you might think within the normal range of human variation. By default the cancer risk and general asymmetries get removed and everyone looks pretty; most witches choose to be hot on top of that. That's what 'Neutrals' get - the most human of witches, and the majority. But there's a race, and you'll have choices. I'm mostly Daeva, which is, essentially, humans but even better. Hotter, more graceful, fantastic boobs that are marvelously convenient for how awkward they'd be this size on a human. We're pretty common, too."

Yes, brain, we are thinking about those breasts right behind us. No, brain, that does not get to make my decisions about whether to take magic and climb her like a tree or wait and think and take my chances. Especially not when that was the point of emphasizing them.

"There's all kinds of other species. Mermaid. Centaur. Vampire. Fallen angel, risen demon. Doll who gets mana from following orders, and as much as I'd enjoy being the one giving them I don't recommend it. Dragon. Statue. Undead. Tinkerer. We'll see your options when we start. Usually you'll only get a few."

"Who says I'm one to take orders, hmm? Alright, stop looming and let's get started. Unless this is one of those things you have to go hammer and tongs until it's done."

"No, you can pause or back out any time. The only risk is annoying me enough I don't want to come back and awaken you."

"You swear to that?"

"On any god you like. Most of which probably sort of exist."

She looks around, sees no observers, and conjures a chair.

"Take my hand."

Tesera's a good liar, but not good enough to fool Bas. She extends her hand.

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."

"And that, that third option, you don't want me to take. And considered not even mentioning. But yes, Academic, proceed."

"There's a lot of types of magic, let me just run through the elementalisms first, and then the other ranked magic, and then we can discuss all the little magics..."

And Tesera explains the options in more honest detail than she usually does, because she can tell Basia would catch her. 

But finally...

"Yeah, this'll do. And I'll owe you for the Mind pearl. Curses and Hexes the side study way, Alchemy and Divination up top honestly. I could switch to Revenant but... I'm not doing that without fixing my legs. And I think that way is... I liked being aggressive on the sports field. But other than the pain, I've been happier watching and analyzing. These picks are for someone who does a lot and never gets noticed."

"Promise I'll notice, lovely. But yes, if you don't want to change your mind and go more sorceress vibe, I think Rusalka's the better choice. You can finalize it any time you like. Or wait for me to visit again tomorrow, I can hold it as-is."

"Which of those gets me the hard sell?"

"Oh, either way. I already called a cab with a door to an unveiled London in the back. I can have your prosthetics and tarot deck delivered to a hotel room by, oh, sundown should be soon enough."

It's barely half three.

But Basia has been badly teased for most of an hour.

She doesn't even bother to deny it.

"Then yes. Time to be a witch."

She sees the image of herself ahead of her, and accepted it. Hollywood pretty, hair twice as long immediately, and damn, she did look good Godiva, not that she was doing that just yet. She got a little thinner, especially in the limbs, her eyes slightly filmy. She can hear whispers of grief and anger.

And the pain in her back and legs and bum is gone. So are the legs, but god, that'd be worth it by itself.

And she can feel the magic. Auras shifting before her (three) eyes, fate just out of reach.

"...If you want to be the most fun thing that happened to me this month, you are now competing with... also you."

Tesera vanishes the seat, and gets up to push the chair.

"Oh, I won't top it. I'm just a miracle-worker, not a goddess. But it'll be second-best this year, I promise you that."

"Then I guess we have a cab to catch."