“I can see the winds more clearly than I can see you, though some of that at least is my race. There definitely was no Aqshy here prior to the fire- or close enough to none as makes no difference. 

The red wind- and others- are formed regardless of the presence or observation of a wizard. There is power in things, released by certain events. Power in life released when it ends, power in something formed when fire unmakes it. An unobserved house burning down would still release a quantity of Aqshy, but not as much as a magical fire. There are devices which can passively accumulate magical energy- the Black Periapt being similar to those- which do fill slowly if left near such events. One assumes that a non-sentient magical device would not count as observation, and if not I’m not sure what the distinction could be.”

"Interesting! I'll tell someone that we want to know next time a person dies. You should go look to see if there's wind around it."

“I will do so! Though I strongly expect there will be. There is quite a lot of power bound up in the difference between life and otherwise…

On that topic… how would your people react to an animated corpse? Not well I’m assuming? Most people’s reaction is not well.” 

"What does that...mean? Is an animated corpse alive?"

“Not… really? Though solving that is one of my pet projects.” Mental monitoring for the half-elf’s reaction. “People broadly consist of three parts. Body, anima, and spirit. Anima is the animating force, what makes things move and react. Spirit is what thinks and makes decisions and has memories and thoughts and goals. Body is… well… the thing the other two pilot around. It is possible to take body or spirit and shove anima into it. Zombies and weights and things are bodies with anima but no spirit. Able to follow simple commands, but not able to think for themselves. Wraiths and banshees and such are spirits with anima but no body. They have personality, memories, minds, but no real means of affecting the physical world. One would think it would be possible then to put both anima and spirit back into a body, but so far no one had found a way. I… think it is sad when people die, and I had been working on a way to bring people back- as themselves. People… have not reacted well to that in the past. Angry crowds with torches and pitchforks. Talk of heresy. 

An animated corpse though, even without its spirit, might be useful to you? If… you don’t have particular objection. The person isn’t using the body anymore, it could be reused for manual labor, or as soldiers which there is no particular moral imperative to protect.” 

"That broadly matches our understanding. We don't know any way to affect much of either with magecraft, but there is generally understood to be a difference between lifeforce and soul. Lifeforce is normally what powers natural magic, but some mental magic seems to work through the soul. I would think that using corpses for manual labor isn't very sanitary? And the corpse belongs to the estate of the deceased, so we'd need to check the records on all of that. But otherwise I don't think people would be too worried about using bodies for things, if they knew what was going on. Most people are okay with medical research, and that sometimes uses corpses or kills people."

"...do people where you're from react to a lot of things with angry crowds?"

“People where I’m from reacted to a terrifyingly many things with angry crowds. It was one of my greatest frustrations. Despite our supposed advancement, no one was willing to just LISTEN to new things.” 

"Do you know...why? Delos generally thinks we're being wasteful about things like the water filter, but doesn't get angry about them. Travelers don't either, even though they mostly don't end up telling their own cities about what we tell them."

“I’m afraid I don’t. I am… not good with people. I function best when there is someone I trust to bounce ideas off of, and then they interact with the muscle bound idiots- erm… soldiers and politicians, and I invent whatever they tell me is important.” 

"Hm, that sounds like it could be concerning. I'm going to warn people to keep an eye out for everyone panicking when we introduce a new idea. I don't see when it would happen, but it would be bad if it did and we should have a plan about it. Anyway, I don't think that would happen here, and it hasn't really before, and we'll make sure to announce your ideas in the way we normally announce anything."

“Yes, there are a number of problems which you seem to have solved in ways that are utterly opaque to me. So long as you have a plan, and that plan has worked fine before… Do your people have gods? Perhaps it was the religion that did it? Fear of divine punishment if they deviated from whatever their priests told them their gods like? I can’t see how defeating death might offend a god of life though so maybe not…” 

"No, there aren't any gods around here. I think the Empire has a god, people sometimes talk about the Divine Emperor. The elves say they were created by a god, and some of the first elves are still alive, so they'd probably know? The elves don't say their god told them anything in particular, though, except that they were supposed to be good at understanding magic. I've heard of a few other gods, but I don't hear about people who spend a lot of time telling others what the gods want?"

“Well, regardless of if that was the cause or not, that’s probably for the best. Anyway. We’re there other magical experiments you had planned? If not, I had a few I wanted to try before the next tian showed up?” 

"I've been trying to grab hold of the winds, but it isn't working! I think the rest should wait until I've had time to think and maybe until you've had time to share more details. If you have first-pass tests we should try them!"

“I mostly was concerned about whether your magic system could dispel mine or not. Magical duels where I came from tend to be an elaborate game of holding back power so the enemy thinks you are planning something really nasty, so they hold back their own power in order to dispel whatever you’re planning- in which case a bunch of smaller spells get through. Or else they dispel the smaller magics and leave themselves open to the bigger. A complicated game of faking out your opponent. If I knew for certain that your sort of magic cannot dispel mine though, I could open with whatever spells I please, which could be very beneficial to you.”

"Sure, we can test it! To try and dispel natural magic, I'd test denying permissions, blocking the flow of energy, adding nonsense to interfere with the magic, and siphoning mana out of the effect. Do you think any of those sound safe to try?"

“Probably all of them, as long as I use a low level spell. For peace of mind though, I would suggest a safe testing area. I haven’t lived this long by disregarding safety procedures just because it SHOULD be fine.” 

"Lets at least use a work room, then."

The work room is made of the same stone, but clearly does have magic in the walls. Dainan ramps up the power of the wards after entering. The floor is down a step from the doorway, and there is another depressed region in the center of the room. A barrel of water and a pile of wood sit in the corner.

Not what she’s used to, but this does at least seem like they take safety in magical experiments somewhat seriously. Elspeth will follow Dainan’s lead. 

Yay experimenting! 

"So, first test, I should set up a permissions field and you should try to cast inside of it."

A large rectangular prism appears in the room, it appears to have a dampening effect on the winds within it. It doesn't look too difficult for Elspeth to counteract, it's similar to the wards that make the local mages' thoughts a little harder to read.

And there will be a little dancing flame within, even though Elspeth really doesn’t like working with fire. It’s at least visible, and doesn’t involve aging someone hundreds of years in a few minutes…

It is noticeably more difficult though, and Elspeth says as much. 

"Okay, so that kind of works! Should I try adding more power until it fails, or should I try interfering with the magic in a different way?"

“Hmm. That perhaps ought to depend on how it is likely to fail. If explosively, then perhaps we ought to wait for an area where the most comprehensive wards won’t be a problem.” 

"It might explode! But at these power levels I don't think it should be enough to hurt us. You'd need to burn a candle for a long time to have enough energy to hurt someone across a room."

“Oh I meant on your end. I’m not entirely clear on what happens when your spells fail.”