She smiles and glances at her wife. 'I'd be happy with that,' she sends. 'Is it okay with you?"

"You are welcome to," she says to the newcomers.

"There's plenty of couch."

"Cool." She goes to sprawl out on the other couch, rubbing her cheek against the fabric a bit.

She scoots Bella out of the way temporarily to claim her own spot, administering headscritches as payment for the inconvenience.

Scritches and a lap to flop in are sufficient repayment. Barely. 

She nuzzles into her darling's hand, purring.

Cute.

"Where are you from?"

"Don't know the country name will mean anything to you... But England, the magical part of it."

"We're from a world called Arda."

"What sort of magic do you do?

"The magic of wand and word and will." She twirls her fingers, a thin, pale stick appearing briefly before disappearing again.

"What can you do with it?"

"Many things. Conjuration, illusions, transfigurations. Spells that heal, spells that hurt, enchantments to expand an object's capabilities. I can speak with snakes, and turn into one. My Bella here can turn fully into a cat."

"And those are - discrete abilities?"

"That depends on the definition of 'discrete' one uses. A spell is learned on its own, and you can ignore entire branches if you wish, but the capability to use magic at all is innate. Either one can or one cannot."

"I was asking about the first - the second hadn't even occurred to me."

"For us... Many people are bad at manipulating Song, especially on purpose, but all of Creation is the Song, and if you exist within it, you affect it."

"There's also no... Discrete or specific songs, though some might have a favorite they've developed for a certain task, especially if they aren't very good at the Song or interested in improving." That is a very bizarre concept to her but she knows anyone does it. "Items of course aren't usually exceptionally flexible in how one would use them - a sword is a sword, and it might be turned to other tasks, but often not very well. But that seems... Different, to me. And most magic is... Just interacting with the world."

"An interesting system. More flexible than our magic at a lower level, it sounds, but more difficult to master."

"How long does yours take to master?"

"Mastery is an elusive goal. I have been practicing magic for fifty years and am beginning to feel I approach an acceptable level, but seven years of schooling suffices to bring the average person to the general competence required to participate in magical society."

...Hum. "Mastery is more complex a question for us, I think, since you need to both know what you're doing and how to focus your will and imbue it in your actions. Schooling is... How you'd produce people who are vaguely passable, but who will struggle to be great - a strong will isn't something you can teach in a classroom, and that structure would hamper it for many."

"My first mastery was in war, and I had no training in the Song - but I had a fierce desire and a burning in my heart, and I was able to overcome the greatest threats of our world in single combat by thirty five... But it took me centuries for even basic proficiency in raising crude mountains."

"Typical timelines are also complicated because the races that consciously draw on the Song the most are much longer lived and slower to mature - a human will die of old age before an elf reaches full adulthood. Thirty five year old elves are very incompetent at the Song."

"Babies," Luthien says fondly.

"Tiny babies, who try very hard." Then, turning to Luthien - "You were a pretty competent baby, though, the third time at least."

"Practice makes perfect."

"Third time?"

"The history of our world was repeating, for a very, very long time. I was - the only one who remembered, ever, but I - accidentally brought Luthien into the loops when I married her."

"So simply?"