"I guess if you want to say a spell thinks the same amount a computer thinks that seems fair, but I don't think computers are complicated enough to think." That's a dumb argument, wow. "Theoretically my spells could be doing something weird out of sight of me and also everyone else, but that seems less likely than them just not, because that would mean that everyone has been missing all of that weird stuff that spells are doing for thousands of years" That's maybe a slightly less dumb argument?

"Oh, not everyone, just most people. Some of the people who write for my daddy's paper have noticed things that their incantations like or dislike. That's how I learned they usually don't like to be repeated too much, there was one lady who overused a heating spell and the spell got upset and set fire to her bed."

"- well, that sure seems like getting worse!"

"Hmm, I guess so? It did still work as a heating spell, it's not that it stopped working at all."

Theory 'one of us is fatally underinformed' is rapidly losing ground to 'this girl is only loosely in contact with other people's reality'. "That seems, uh, worse at accomplishing your goals. Which usually do not include arson as a solution to bad weather."

She chuckles. "That would be an unusual goal! But overusing a heating spell would work well if that were your goal. So I suppose everything really depends on what you consider better or worse."

"Usually your goals include consistency, though."

"Well, it is more convenient and predictable if spells work very consistently, I suppose. But it's more interesting when they don't. And I'm sure there are some situations where it's useful for them not to."

More interesting - okay, Dasha's done figuring out what's up with Luna, she should be talking to people who seem more, not less, likely to help her make it to sophomore year if she spends time around them. "I suppose there might be."

Luna gazes vaguely into the distance. "I wonder if our spells miss us when we die."

Nope. Nope nope nope she's done trying not to be rude. "It was good to meet you," she says, turning away.

"You too!" Luna says pleasantly, and resumes her dance.