He considers. "... Yes. Though do try to be safe, please."

"I can't accidentally cast a spell, and I can't learn one without completely understanding all its component parts," Iobel says, skimming the pages. "It's not impossible for a spellbinder to have a magical accident, but it's hard. Is it commoner with mages?"

"It is," he agrees. "If you miss something important, you could die or kill someone. I have to specify in my shields that people will not be cut in half and oxygen will circulate freely and - so on."

"And I'd have to specify that in the spellchart, but once I had the spell I wouldn't have to think about it again," says Iobel. Skim skim.

"It sounds it. But you don't have charge time, so there's that. Charge time and duration are both luck per spell for us. I have a flying spell that has a completely stupid ratio between the two - it's otherwise perfect but I never use it because it takes too long and doesn't last long enough."

"That's a pity. Ours can last as long as we fuel it, and cast as fast as we can think. Which, for some people, is really fast."

"Lucky. The shortest charge is thirty seconds."

"That must be annoying. I suppose continuous effects are more useful, in that case."

"Yeah, the only problem is if you want to make a hex you can't cast anything else all day. I made a lot of them when I had my shop."

"I think I might need that explained - make a hex?"

"Oh - we get exactly six spells a day, every spellbinder exactly six. But if we cast an entire day's batch all at once we can make something permanently magical. There's a fountain on the grounds that will heal any familiar immersed in the water, for example - although we don't know how to make more of those anymore, the chart's been lost - and that's a hex. The palace is climate-controlled and plumbed and in some rooms lit with hexes, too, although most people can't afford that many. Anybody can be a spellbinder but not everybody can fit a hex into their head."

Nod. "Ahh, I see. That's interesting. We don't have the issue with fitting things in our head, we can take our spells slow if they're complicated."

"Different sets of drawbacks and advantages."

"Yeah, same with mine. Materials and setup, but no use limit and I don't have to know much at all about what I'm doing if I follow the procedure - though I usually do because I'm a magic specialist."

"But I guess that means once you invent something lots of people can use it, no problem."

"Yeah, that part's great, very important for the immortality and resurrection things."

"And vice-versa! Alethiometer says I can't do interplanar travel no matter what I try, with witch magic."

"...Alethiometer?"

"Did I forget to mention that? I did, didn't I. I have an artifact that dispenses absolute truth! But it stops working if I take it out of Chamomile. I can work it through my portal bag from wherever, but it doesn't know about things outside Chamomile regardless. It's super useful for narrowing down spell research, though, even though it's cryptic - Adarin made me things to help read it, but it's just meanings, no grammar and it's bad at numbers and doesn't really do long sentences."

"I might revisit the things to read them, see if I can throttle grammar out of them. It's more - intuitive, though, I don't know how to work that into my magic."

"That is the best kind of artifact. I'd want one if it would work here."

"And I would get you a spare and hand it over! But it won't, alas."

"It does sound very, very useful. Pity. Oh well."