"Mostly my problem is that I'm bored," she says. "Skipping all the things that the potion would let me skip wouldn't solve that problem. I guess you're learning magic all the time?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"I'm going to at least have to decide whether to do that or turn into a vampire, if I want to do either one."

"It is possible to stop being a spellcaster, but I'd have to look into whether that would permit becoming a vampire or whether you'd be locked out forever."

"That one I don't seem to mysteriously know."

"I think I know who I'd ask. There are three people in the Realm of Magic who are, uh, in charge of turning anyone into a spellcaster, and also generally very powerful, if anyone would know it's them."

"...assuming I manage to get the question to go through."

"Do they get offended or just not understand?"

"Not understand. I may be too pessimistic, haven't really talked to them in a while, but when I was under the assumption the world made sense and there was a reason why no one was taking all the free magic lying around I tried to get them to properly explain to me what being a spellcaster was like and all they seemed to hear me saying was 'please give me one random tidbit about spellcasters'."

"You haven't gone back since?"

"I have, but I haven't talked to them, or pretty much anyone. I sometimes practise potionmaking and sometimes go into town to see if they're selling some rare ingredient or spell scroll but otherwise stay on my own."

Elspeth nods.

"Do you know what the deal is with the gaps in trips between places?"

"Nope. That one I... experimented on only a little... but eventually I got teleportation and have been exclusively using that. Haven't been able to keep a video recording of the process to really happen, and I can't seem to be able to teleport to the, ah, 'liminal spaces' for lack of a better word, even though any other places I can usually get to without even necessarily having ever been to them before."

"I've been meaning to try walking along a route that normally includes one, have you done that?"

"Yeah. If I'm trying to go somewhere I get there and find that time has passed, if I try to just sort of walk around the place there's also a frame skip but after it I return to where I started."

"Huh. I think I still want to try it myself, I might walk home now - do you want to come?"

"Sure! My prediction is if I'm intending to follow you it'll work fine."

"Okay, this way." She walks home, trying to pay close attention to where each step takes her along the route.

Skip.

Peter is right behind her on the other side of it, looking somewhat disoriented but unsurprised.

Also, she's feeling like she walked the whole way, her legs are approrpriately sore and an appropriate amount of time has passed.

"Might try going back and forth and taking smaller steps - or aiming to reach a point that looks like it exists, but gets skipped - but first I'm going to put my groceries away and sit," she sighs. She lets Peter in to her house.

In he goes, looking around with polite curiosity.

"You'll still get tired and time will pass just like you walked all the way," he warns, "so you might want to reserve a Sunday for it or something."

Her house is pretty sparse; she hasn't added anything to the decor since she started existing. "Yeah, I get that sense." Hey, she has a chess book, does she have a chessboard?

She does!

"Chess?" she suggests, when she's located it.

He looks at the table and—flinches a bit. Then laughs at himself. "Yeah, sure. Fun fact, NPCs learn chess way faster than we do. Or, at least, than I do."