"As cool as they might be I think, being the literal first ever test case of an Amazon witch I'm unlikely to want faction magics. Being part of two factions at once isn't impossible, even in the higher ranks—our Minister of Finance is also on the board of the Lotus Corporation—but it's tricky to navigate. It sounds like from here my biggest choice to make is my class, then."

"You can pick up some faction magic without entwining your fate with the faction. As I mentioned, I have some Ministration and I'm not a Watcher."

"Huh, are any of them available to me?"

"Digicasting and Wands are available to anyone, they come from the magic school factions. Digicasting lets you enter media, at rank 2 with friends, and at rank 3 travel through the Internet, but traveling through the Internet is complicated and I'd recommend sticking to Portals. Wands is a huge collection of individual utility spells that require rest between usage. Ministration we've discussed, I can get you up to rank 2. You can take Dominion, which we've also discussed, but your telekinesis will be notably slower and you'll have to figure out time dilation yourself."

"Hmmm, okay, good to know. What are some examples of the utility spells under Wands?"

"Rank 1 includes a bit of light, a little static illusion, a bit of force, making your … wand … produce chalk. I'm sorry. I'm used to awakening people who have the Mothergifts, which you don't. It is possible that you could design some other wand that Wands would work with, but I personally don't have the expertise for that."

"The Mothergifts. That's the free magic outfit, I assume?"

"Yes. Outfit, hat, and rod, and Wands can function with the rod."

Raven nods.

"I think I'd like to go over the classes in more detail. Do academics and sorcereses have any big initial choices to make like a warlock patron? Does my choice of class make a difference to how many points I have to spend today?"

"Academics need to pick their two fields of study that take time but not points, but that's not as big a deal as warlock patron choice. Sorceresses don't have a big initial choice."

"I see. And do they have starting perks like the warlock patrons' gifts?"

"The academics get an efficiency improvement, where they can produce twice as much of a potion with the same ingredients, or go twice as fast, or such, but not all of those at once. Sorceresses get auras and if they use the auras to empower their elementalism, the elementalism has better range and area of effect and damage."

"You also can use some of your starting power on relics, but they won't end up bound to your soul, so I really wouldn't recommend doing much of it."