"Well, yes."

"It's been on her to-do list practically her whole life," confides Raney. "I think she's worried she won't get everything else in if she doesn't have literally forever."

"Makes sense. Sounds like there's a lot she wants to get done."

"Teleportation, perfect recall, working memory boost..."

"Oooo," says Edarial.

"Lot of groundwork for that last one, and I'm not sure how I'd test it ethically if I were the least bit uncertain about it, but yeah."

"Yeah. Still useful to have, if it's possible."

"Oh yes. If I actually finish charting workable teleportation, let alone immortality, that's my next project if I don't prove able to load them all up at once."

He nods. "Makes sense. I've thought about a few solutions to give a memory boost, but... Nothing concrete."

"My preliminary idea is layers of working memory. Either a sort of reservoir to drop lost fragments of spell into, or the ability to nest the parts - have the top-level abstract shape of it in normal processing but memorize the other things on other levels."

"Clever! You could also have something to sort what drops lost fragments, points out where they dropped out from, so you don't have to waste processing time figuring out what's what and lose something else while you do it, it just informs you."

"Yeah, something to keep them attached to whatever you've still got that's closest. But I think the layers idea would be better if I could make it work. It'd also have more applications besides learning spells."

"Well, yes, but it's a good idea to have multiple ways to approach a problem in case one goes wrong."

Iobel nods.

"She's a very gifted spellbinder."

Edarial smiles at her.

"Look, you have someone to geek out about magic with!"

"Oh goodness. I occasionally tried to keep up with Iobel talking magic - but I only know simple spells. I spend them on boiling water and dusting the living room as often as not."

"Well, you taught me to read, which is certainly the most important prerequisite."

"Oh, nonsense, you taught yourself to read and I slightly improved your penmanship."

"Edarial's tried to persuade me to talk to him about magic. Ugh."

"That doesn't make much sense. You're no spellbinder."

"I mostly just don't have people to talk to about magic."

"Well, now there's Iobel."

"There is," he agrees.