There is a shop with incongruous architecture, gnarled mossy wood tucked in between a pink stucco nail salon ("Gel manicures!") and a similarly stucco but painted blue record store ("BUY - SELL - TRADE").

Ooh, a store that is antique. Is it also an antique store? What has it got in its windows?

The windows are actually really hard to see through, they have a smoky stained quality and also the pieces of glass are really small. The mullions between each little smeary glass diamond look real, not decorative.

Huh, that seems counterproductive, and also like it might be a historical building they can't change. Curious. But it's definitely a storefront kind of place and not an office or an apartment entrance? She doesn’t want to bother anybody that isn’t asking to be bothered.

There's a bell on the door!

Okay, fair enough. If the shop turns out to be for things completely unrelated to her life she can apologize and compliment the architecture. Clunk DING DING squeeeal.

"Welcome!" says a girl who looks much less antique than the shop. She is, as compensation of some sort, dressed up as a witch complete with pointy hat. "Come in come in!"

The wares are not exactly antiques. There are fantasy maps up on the wall, a glass column full of live giant butterflies, a model of a solar system that isn't this one, scrolls and wands and crystals and a fishbowl and decks of ?tarot? cards...

Wow. It’s a strangely high-budget kind of cryptically eclectic. Fantasy decor? Cosplay for a locally popular fandom with lots of money? Magic props?

She looks around, intentionally conveyed puzzlement on her face, and tries to see if the butterflies have an explanation visible.

The butterflies are unlabeled.

"When you have had enough look at the butterflies come here to be looked at your own self, I have a hunch!" chirps the witch.

“What, is your hunch perhaps that I’m your next customer? With a hole in my life shaped like a butterfly?”

Whatever this is, it is not a normal sort of store and it does not seem fitting to stick to a conventionally polite sort of conversation. Arguably she should be making an excuse and exiting promptly before she has to exit less gracefully from whatever this is. But there’s something about the whole picture that — is somehow right despite looking like it should be wrong.

She will approach the counter to a more comfortable conversational distance.

The witch takes Kaitliyn's hands in hers like that is a normal thing to do. And then her witch hat flies off her head, because her ears have abruptly morphed into big brown bunny ears.

"My hunch was so right. How would you like to be a witch, stranger?"

Whoa.

“If I am one, do I have to ply my trade in a mysterious shop with no name?”

"Only if this sparks joys."

“I can see how it might, for people who aren't me.”

"I like it. But needs not must. The line of work is not retail, anyway, that is mostly decoration - not that I would not sell you something if you wanted any. The line of work is awakening witches!"

“And this is a rare enough opportunity that you don’t have a booth at the career fair.”

"Oh, you could be an awakener if you wished but there is some continuing of the education after learning just how to do magic."

“Oh, sorry, that was ambiguous. I mean — being a witch is not the sort of thing that comes up at the career fair.”

"Oh. No. Most people do not have potential."

“And the ones that — awaken — aren’t out there having already collected the Randi Prize and generally being agreed to exist and do magic because—?”

"There is a Veil, and a Veil is needful, because if too many mundie types learn of magic here on this Earth - this one specifically, tell all the neighboring ones you like - then there is a bad problem. It has happened before, sixty five million years ago, and back then, this was not the specific Earth! It was a different one and all the dinosaurs here still died."

“Does that mean that — wait, who was doing the telling to whom, then? Were the dinosaurs intelligent and magical? — never mind, you didn’t say that these are somehow otherwise-identical Earths, it’s just a popular idea that there could be some.”

“So if I get to be a witch, and I have to keep it secret, what can I do with it? Besides hang out with butterflies and stained glass, which are pretty but aren’t people. Unless they are.”

"Some pretty similar but presumable differences were happening sixty-five million years back.

"You can go places full of witches! And use magic here too, on the sly - the Veil will help, if you are not too obvious. These butterflies are not people, they are just big."

“And is there a price? Or an oath? A lethal allergy to water?”

"Lethal allergy to water optional, since I am helping - natural awakenings sometimes get nasty surprises. My business model does not charge you or ask you any oaths."

“Ah, you’re doing this out of the goodness of your heart and the fluffiness of your ears?”

"Not at all! Business model very much exists, just does not charge you. Natural awakened witches are so much less useful for everyone to have around, so aforementioned everyone compensates awakeners for doing the job and for being very neutral about all of everyone."

“Less useful?”

"You do not have to work for any of everyone if you do not so wish. But natural awakenings come out with things like the water allergy, which is real and can hurt not you but people who have it, and they have ranks in magics they do not want to have jobs in, and inconvenient talents in things like making the weather change with their mood, and species that are unpleasant to be and hard to do workplace accommodations of. Bad for the labor pool, for recruitment, et cetera. Like if everyone were coming out of universities having accidentally got a double doctorate in basket weaving and history of australopithecene dance, perhaps it would be nice to open a nursing school and a computer science program, you see? Also all the everyone would like to be able to send their children to professionals, too - you are something of a sideline."

“That makes sense. So how does professional awakening work? On my end, I mean.”

"I walk you through what-all you have the potential for and you pick things and you walk out a witch! You will pick a species and a way of getting better at magic and some magic to already be able to do, and if you want more points' worth of magic than you already have the potential for you can pick up some inconveniences. Such as the water allergy. But you did not sound keen on it. There are more popular ones."

“—species?”

"Species!" She pets one of her own ears. "I am an oread for instance. You can stay a human, or, the PC thing to say is 'neutral', because you will be a witch human not a mundane human. But many species are more fun or make it easier to learn more of some or another type of magic."

“Neat. Disguisable?”

"Varies. Oreads have the convenient shapeshifty thing as you saw, that comes standard with us-es. If you stay neutral but do a cosmetic tune-up of your true form while awakening, the Veil will cover that. If you walk out of here on four legs, Veil will have a bit of a time, but you could get a special wheelchair for pretending in and that would most likely do. If you go around being hashtag ifrit pride it will be pretty hard for the Veil to conceal that you are at all times very much on fire, so you should be also invisible or something if you do this."

“Flexible. All right. What do I have the potential for?”

"In the species department?"

“Well, for everything, but we can start there, why not. I do want to get the whole picture before deciding anything.”

"In your family tree way back it looks like we have... neutral, aforementioned; daeva, souped-up superhero-comic-book-human-ish guys; dryads, treeple; lamia, like a snake-taur; elf, what it sounds like; undine, water elemental; sprite, tiny insect fey; lilin, demonic folks; erinyes, fallen angels; pixie, tiny plant-theme fey; fairy, tiny party fey."

“— I’m getting the impression that a lot of myths are actual things leaking through the Veil. But what does it mean to be an actual fallen angel? Is there an actual Hell involved? Where’s the fall?”

She can see that mundane culture might have accreted a distinctly filtered view of what necessarily-secret magical beings might be up to. But still.

"Actual Hell exists. Erinyes connection to it is pretty tenuous, there's hellier things out there, if they have very corroboratey mythology of it they did not tell us oreads, but they have feather wings and permanent weepy mascara, very goth, and the put-about summary is the fallen angel one. They get mana from people about them having a bad time of it, especially if they yell about it. Does not have to be the erinyes's fault, necessarily."

She makes such a face about that. “How about the opposite of that.”

"Regular not fallen angels are also real but not at this retail environment for you to be. But if you mean the mana part, closest you get to opposite is fairies, they throw magical parties and the partiers get them mana. Fun weekend if very exhausting."

“I suppose I could learn to pull that off…”

She reaches into her pocket, and pauses. “Is it okay if I take notes? Do I have to make sure that’s not any kind of information leak?”

"Oh, go right ahead, the veil will make sure it looks as though you are planning to dungeon some dragons should anybody see, it is a good and helpful veil."

She finishes the motion of pulling out her phone and unlocking it. Tap tap. “Can you give me, like, the physical description and the way of getting mana, for each of the species, and we’ll save the cultural and metaphysical implications for later?”

"Sure! Neutral is just like you are with a tune-up. Mana from sleep. Daeva are more - statuesque, let us say. Mana from emotions - directed right at them, or a whole crowd all around them having a time at the ballgame or whatever. Dryads can turn straight up into a tree, you look like a... an oak dryad, if you become one - and even when not turned into a tree have some tree bits upon them, can be very stylish. Mana from tending to living things, gardens or groves or Grandma, so long as you are feeding and watering and so on. Lamia I mentioned are snake-taurs, trade everything below the waist for most of a snake yea big around. Mana from swallowing stuff alive yes that is often people no it does not actually have to make them be dead. Elf - you'd be a sun elf, you'd get a bit browner - looks passable as human, pointy ears, gracile, shortish, but basically just a regular Jo. Mana from meditating. Undines are all water all through, a bit jello-y, can get bigger or smaller or change shape but will settle to being about shaped like you are now. Mana from filtering water, which comes naturally with being an undine and poking some water. Sprites and fairies and pixies are all little." She pinches her fingers an inch apart. "They have them-sized cities and it is very much the advantage if you want to pave the streets with commodities or do square-cube-law fun with architecture, but does make it tricky going home again. Sprites are bee-ish more than any other one thing, make honey, get mana from fermenting it into a mana potion, slurp. Pixies can have bugly wings like sprites do or leafy ones, either, and get mana from growing flowers-in-particular. Fairies can have sprite wings or wings that are barely there at all and made of light, and get their mana from the party situation."

Tap tap taptaptaptap tap furiously tap.

“Is the dryad thing more like having two bodies but only one at a time, or more like shapeshifting where the result is always a tree? Can they move as a tree? Does losing branches hurt if you still have plenty?”

"More like shapeshifting. Trees do not move much, dryad ones can flex a little more. I... do not think anyone has asked me this before ever, I will look up at it..." She produces her phone and inquires of the internet. "Small branches do not hurt, anything thicker than your wrist will," she reports.

Tap tap. “Is meditating, uh, a very specific elf practice designed for getting mana, or is it more like take your pick from the kind of things people call meditation? — if that even makes sense; I don't know very much.”

"Specific elf practice. Apparently not hard to have the hang of as a new elf."

“Do they make, like, phones and computers for sprites and fairies and pixies — and undines if they’re always wet — or is it more of a leaving all that behind situation?”

"Alphazon has all these needs and more covered."

“Hm. Do daeva have to be physically in the room with the emotions or do they work over the internet?”

"Must be in person."

“Well, I can’t say I ever considered turning into a snake before,¹ but a lot of these choices seem to come with significant chores by which ‘sleep’ — something I already have to do — looks pretty attractive by comparison. Is there a catch? And what other factors should I be comparing species on — I mean, in what ways do they differ, besides the physical characteristics and presumably miscellaneous social assumptions based on who would pick their lifestyle?”

¹ It wouldn’t have helped.

"Catch is that you can stop already needing to sleep. Other features are culture stuff as you are guessing, mana generation as we have spoken of - including how fast it is and how much space it has for filling - and affinities - which magics are cheaper to get. So if you very much want to be a rune enchanter with the very fanciest familiar, this makes a case for neutral over daeva, for instance."

Tap tap. “I think I need more of the rest of the picture. What magics are there?”

"There are many 'wild' magics, encapsulated-like, and then there are 'ranked' magics, the common kinds and the kinds you can only get by being factional one way or another. In what order will you best learn the things?"

“Uh, let’s go with the ones that are common kinds.”

"Elementalisms! It is like Avatar the Last Airbender in here except there is also nature and psionics and metal which count as their own elementalisms also. If you are a sorceress, you can do it all. If you are an academic or a warlock, you get ones you have affinity for, plus one, and that is all. Then you have alchemy for potions, runes for magic items, curses for going 'fuck you' at people real good, hexes for transmutation, witchery for your hat 'n broomstick 'n stuff, familiarity for having a magic critter, necromancy for bones and ghosts shenanigans, consortation for the summoning of demons, portals for the hither to yon, divination for knowing what gives, and aethernautics for stars planets demiplanes and oddities."

“Are affinities a thing that I already have or do they get picked or determined later?”

“Is the, uh, mythological tendency of witches to cursing people for for reasons that aren‘t ‘they attacked me first’ derived from some fact?”

“Do magic items including building computers out of magic?”

"Affinities are mostly by species, sometimes by wild magic that tacks on a specialness to your species, sometimes by very expensive alchemy. Witches are like anybody really, but it is a very - fighty culture. Many immortal people, you wind up with the outdated values butting heads with the new, and folks getting a bit callous about the mayflies - even neutrals live longer than ordinary humans - and others defending them, and also there are monsters and things like that. Runes do not so much do computers, for this you might want to make nice with Alphazon, our very own this side of the veil magitech megacorp."

“So what is magitech made with? I hope you’re not going to tell me that’s an Alphazon trade secret.”

"Unfortunately that is what I am going to tell you. I can hook you up with them but I am not myself hooked up, I am a neutral awakener."

Someone in this room may have found what they’re going to be butting heads about.

“Okay. Anyway. For kinds of magic, how much am I picking now versus later? Like, is ‘runes’ something I pick in awakening, or finer than that, or does everyone get to pick it up when they are interested?”

"Decisions you set in stone here with me are species, type - that is sorceress academic or warlock, and if warlock which patron - and if you wish to be fated to fall in with a faction such that you can buy their magic right off. You can nonfatedly go making friends and influencing people all over the worlds later on without my help, and you can buy up all your wild and ranked magic later too should this be how you roll, such as if you wish to read all of Witchipedia before you touch a bit of it. Anything that is not one of those, or a wild magic affecting one of those, free to leave for later."

“What are types?”

"Types give also-sort-of-affinities - different kind, not mix and match with species ones, but still make some magics cheaper. I mentioned already about sorceresses getting all the elementalisms when others do not. Main underlying difference besides this is where the power is from. Academics study, sorceresses practice, warlocks run errands for a god or something who makes them the offer. Warlocks grow fastest, academics slowest. Academics have slightly higher long run total power caps. Warlocks get bribes."

“To clarify, by ‘power’ you mean being able to do more different things, or bigger things, which is separate from mana?”

"Right. All the mana in the world will not make me able to teleport by psionics because that is rank three and I do not have rank three in it."