"I'm Bella Swan. Nice skates."

“Thank you! I have a wheel affinity and I like it.”

"They handle stairs and everything?"

“They do! They apply the amount of friction that I want them to.”

"Cool. I have magic shoes and they're a little like that but obviously don't have wheels."

“Neat!”

"And I didn't make mine myself, either. So you'll be an artificer?"

“I will! What are you going for?”

"Creative writing, but my affinity is metamagic and it generalizes well."

“How does that work?”

"If someone's casting a spell I can alter it a bit, and I can do it with artifice, too, and I'm good at spells that interact with existing magic in some way."

“That’s nifty! If I make a project and it doesn’t turn out, are you hirable for editing?”

"Sure am!"

“Great! And if you need the kind of artifice that rolls around, I’m available.”

"Maybe you could do little patroller things that check rooms for mals."

“I bet I could!”

"They'd sell like hotcakes."

“They’re higher on my priority list than magic gocarts and lower than magic skateboards, I think.”

"The skateboards having what intended use?"

“Being less yummy! I could make them go really fast and steer really well and handle stairs and lots of nifty things, so you’d be hard to catch, and they’re close enough to my core of expertise that they’d be easy.”

"Most of my ideas about this are more in the 'robots' vein than the 'vehicles' vein, which is probably harder or at least more collaborative."

“I like collaborating with people! I think it’s hard to do robots without them trying to eat you.”

"Yeah, that's probably true, I've never tried it."

“Patroller robots are a good idea and they’re still on the list but they’re after the easy uncomplicated part of the list, is all. Where are you from?”

"New Orleans, yourself?"

“I’m from South Africa!”

"Do you like it there?"

“I like most places? I probably won’t spend my whole life there, China or America would have more for me to do. Do you like New Orleans?”

"Not that much. They've been very nice to me but I can't see myself living there indefinitely."

“Why?”

"I don't want kids, so an enclave spot isn't very useful to me the way it is to some people, and I don't like the city or have close friends there. I'll pay them back, but I don't want to just settle down."

“That makes sense!”

"Plus apparently enclaves aren't all that safe, though I have no clue what happened to Chicago."

“Something happened to Chicago?”

"You haven't heard yet? Yeah, their batch of freshman almost entirely didn't show up. One of their hangers-on did, said he went to an entrance and it wasn't the enclave any more, just gone."

“I just made it to the cafeteria, there was a mal chasing me in circles. I did not know that could happen to enclaves and it’s very alarming!”

"Did the mal get away or did someone do for it?"

“A senior went for it and they are getting their skateboard at a discount.”

"Much good may it do them."

“That’s the hope!”

"Which stairwell are you off, are we near each other? I'm over there."

“I’m a little turned around but I’m off that one, I think,” she says, pointing at a stairwell two steps removed.

"Alrighty. So I guess we won't see a ton of each other, but it was nice to meet you, and I'll remember your name, since we rhyme."

“It was nice meeting you!”