"How sure of that are you?"

"… Sure enough I've not died while poking at magic yet? I'm careful, I don't just try – like, teleportation or something stupid like that."

"Someone once tried to measure the site of various falling objects. 'Down' is no longer a coherent concept in the area of the test."

"Uh. If that were a problem I would expect lots of issues with, say, magnetism or – well, we have lightbulbs? They use electricity, and as far as I know that's all very technical but linked to magnetism."

"Sounds like something out of a science fantasy novel."

"… I don't think we have any of those?"

"It's a genre of fiction wherein the world works in transparent and predictable ways, and won't poke back if you poke at it."

"I wouldn't – uh, I wouldn't call everything transparent," he says, looking around. "And we should probably start moving before something attacks."

"If it's not actively hiding, it's transparent. Where are we going?"

"We're halfway through this forest and it's well-known for having awful creatures at night and being dangerous enough you shouldn't go into it in the day unless you're either suicidal or a sorcerer, so… mostly just away from here."

"Which direction, though?"

He continues in the direction he was going. "Away from Saffron, right now, and sort of loosely Ajolta-wards. Because I am in fact a sorcerer and so am fine in these forests."

She follows after.

"What sort of dangers are there?"

"It strongly depends on what you're looking out for. Some things won't attack you unless you notice them." Pause. "But more helpfully – stay away from anything that seems extremely out of place, stay away from anything that looks ominous, if you're not sure then ask me, if I'm not around then try to look at some spot that keeps it out of the corner of your eye and back away slowly, holding a hand behind you in case you walk into another one."

"Would a fireball make that kind of situation better or worse?"

"… A direct attack would be risky, because against a lot of them it could help but against a lot of others it'd just provoke them. You'd be safer just creating a flame near you, if you can, and then using a fireball if it does attack."

"Do you have a bestiary or something?"

"It's more informal notes than a bestiary per se, and mostly for the rarer creatures…"

"I'd still be interested in seeing it."

He gets out a book and shows it to her. "I'd rather not lose this, if possible – it'd mean a hassle to get all the information compiled again."

"I can be careful."

So he hands it to her and continues walking.

It's a lot of hand-written notes. The details are mostly scarce and some of the diagrams have notes like 'reproduced from verbal accounts' or 'guess from tracks'.

There is also a huge section on Shadows, which mostly elides details of what they look like and what danger they typically pose, but goes into quite a lot of detail about the magic they appear to have access to, ranges of 'personalities' and histories of interactions he's had with them.

They've all ended in the attempted murder of the Shadow, it seems.

That's only sensible, if they are dangerous. He does seem the sensible type.

Well, they're presumably dangerous. Apparently they can appear in sufficiently thick fog, too, which not everybody knows.

Fortunately, the surrounding forest is not at all foggy! How nice for them.

Yes, it is. Lovely day for a walk.