"There is that at least- wait how about you two? How come you haven't been found yet?"

"Our masks, they keep us undetectable until someone sees our face or figures our identities out."

"Can't they find you right now, though? Since you're not wearing them?"

"No, they are protecting us even when we don't wear them, or otherwise we wouldn't be able to eat."

"Well, our place is outside their range."

"So... why wear them at all?"

"They have to be nearby," Fenris points at his mask hanging from his belt. "and they come with handy anti-removal and anti-scrying wards, so you can't just look what is under it."

"But if someone tried to scry you right now they'd be able to do it?"

"No. Someone could use a see-through-objects spell to spy on us through your walls, but I think removing our masks was a good symbolic gesture."

"It was a trade off. It's unlikely they would get that close without us noticing."

"Huh. And if they just saw you without a mask randomly on the street that wouldn't be enough?"

"No, you have to connect the mask with whoever is behind it. I could've come talk to you two pretending that we'd never met and that wouldn't dispel the effect."

"Albeit, in that case it wouldn't block scrying completely, but only so you couldn't figure out we are the masked ones by scrying and finding the blind spot."

"I see. That's an interesting artifact, where'd you get it? And by the way how do you make artifacts with sorcery?"

"Family heirloom."

"Artifact making is a bit... complex, it calls upon a lot of magical concepts. The sorcery way sacrifices part of your mana capacity."

"Permanently? How about the way with runes?"

"You can recover your lost mana capacity by training. Runes can make artifacts too, no sacrifice of mana capacity, but generally more dangerous, like any big runecasting."

"Can you just redo everything you've done before to regain mana capacity?"

"No. I mean, rebuilding mana isn't impossible, but doing the same things won't work, or at least will work just as before the ritual. And if you zero the mana it's gone for good."

"...yikes. That sounds. Um. Yikes." Pause. "How much must the Cards have cost?"

"Is there a way to regain the magic at all? Once it's lost that is."

He is talking about regaining magic much in the same way people would talk about getting back the ability to see or walk.

"None that we know of."

"Well, at least anyone can still cast from runes. I guess accidentally turning into a critter might count as getting magic in a way."

"...hooray? Also now I wanna figure out a way to make people get magic back, I bet it's possible somehow, if you can put magic into objects and even create people—" he gestures at Kero.