"There are four, and they're fairly subtle. They are real, but they're not miracles, you know? Just a bit of a boost. Fire, for tests and competitions. Water, for empathy and personal connections. Earth, for patience and comfort and rest. Air, for learning and exploration and new experiences."

"Ooh, I have a test coming up."

With a smile and a snap of his fingers the coal in his staff comes alight, and he pulls a few sparks off it with another gesture.

"By the light of fire, that primal hunger, may you be the best you can be! With pride and will, you will face all the challenges ahead and find within yourself the ability to overcome them. Shine without fear, and May You Be Blessed."

He waves and the sparks form a circle around him before suddenly flaring and then vanishing. 

"Good luck! What is your test on? I'm new here and curious."

"Math. I'm brushing up, I spent a long time kind of doing nothing and now I want to do things again."

"I see. Basic income, right? It's a strange concept to me - where I grew up, you worked or you starved. I'm glad it doesn't have to be that way."

"Yeah, daeva help a lot with that. Some people don't like UBI, they think there should be more incentive to work, but not starving incentive. Usually."

"I do think the world is better when people get a little push, but it should be - aspiration, not fear."

"Yeah! Are you guys going to join Vanda Nossëo?"

"Well, it's hardly been a day since. Not as an entire world - we're not unified and the dragons and spirits are going to complicate things - but certain cities, maybe even the whole Metal Kingdoms as one or other unifications like that I think will likely want to- Benevolent visitors from beyond the stars is a big deal! A big cultural touchstone."

"Ooooh dragons... why are the metal kingdoms called that?"

"I've never met a dragon. Rare, reclusive, very dangerous - and definitely people, no matter what others say. The metal kingdoms were all founded about a hundred years ago by 'brother kings', set on... Well, invading and driving away dragons and building new cities in the untamed lands. Named all their cities after metals. Goldvalley, Silverreach, Ironriver, Copperhold, Pewtermarch, Bronzehill. Can't remember the other three."

"Cute. Theme naming. ...Vanda Nossëo isn't being weird about dragons being people, are they?"

"Well, what's weird? I don't know what they're thinking - they weren't exactly talking about it and were kind of avoiding the subject, I think, from what I overheard."

"Huh. I'm going to write my representative to make sure they know." He takes out his computer and composes a note.

Nature spirits are people too, but... "Huh, is that - going to be a big deal? I wouldn't want to cause too much fuss over nothing."

"Oh, probably they're on it and I'll get a form letter but it never hurts."

"Huh. Mention nature spirits and elephants and other animals too - I'm less sure other animals would all count, they can be simple. I'm pretty sure they know, I mentioned it, but if it never hurts may as well."

"Mm-hm." He amends the note.

"I'm trying to get a feel for the multiverse, would you mind telling me what your average day is like?"

"Oh, sure, why not. I get up at like nine and I have breakfast, usually granola or I get a burrito from the place cattycorner to my apartment, and then I go to the gym - I'm planning to totally let myself go after I hit my ideal everything and hold onto it for like, a week, but I hear it's easier to make stuff stick as a daeva if you were ever actually in that shape as a human, and some people think it's got important health benefits you can't capture by going to the clinic whenever you get a twinge. - I'm going to be a daeva when I die, since I was born here and did a summoning one time. Anyway, then I go to classes, I usually walk there, kind of cool down after lifting weights, and I have calculus and multiversal studies and world history and modern English lit and ceramics and essay seminar and standard model bio, depending on the day, not all at once, and I get lunch somewhere in there usually from the food court on campus, and after classes I do some homework in the library because it's nicer in a place with other people even if nobody's talking and the librarians'll help if they're not busy, and then I walk home, which brings us to now, this fountain's on my way."

"A lot to unpack in there! What's a burrito, gym, and 'standard model bio'? -I won't keep you any longer if you'd rather go get some rest. Or I will if you don't mind."

"Nah, it's fine, you're interesting. I don't usually think of myself as, like, exotic. Burrito's a wrap, very flat bread with stuff in it. Gym's a place where they have exercise equipment. Bio is living things and standard model is like, the things aren't magical or otherwise doing something very weird."

"I'll have to try a burrito later. Gym's like a guard training yard, I suppose? Except not - military. Huh, I wonder if I'm standard model. My instinct would be 'no' because-" He dips his hand into the fountain behind him and pulls it back up with a globe of wobbly water clinging to him. "This, but I really wouldn't know."

"You can be biologically standard and still have magic powers but I dunno if you specifically are."

"Oh, it's more- No, you're right, I have no idea. My magic is not innate. It's... Spiritual. Being aware of yourself and the world and reaching an understanding of things. And, you know, I have no idea how to tell the difference between 'this power was always within you, only now unlocked' or 'you've grown your soul like a muscle over time' or 'it's just long practice making you better at this'."