"Alright." 

They wait for a second, and then the world unfolds, spiralling out from a wash of white into more and more colors, doubling again and again 'til a world of screens surrounds them, enwrapping them, overlaying the reality around them, as a digital sun hangs in the sky, a pink sparks dance through the air from a distant blaze, and a plain table of white appears between teh two figures. 

A glossy layer slides across the endless expanse of white that makes the floor as more and more tangible details seep in to the place, 'til the only thing that makes this distinct from the idea inside her head is the exact-sense-direction of the input. 

I stare, for a while, the world shifting slightly to greyscale as my own eyes predominate and the spacings shift, the colors bleeding out into sharper places as. Iwatch. 

"This is quite beautiful a work, I feel. My thanks for showing it to us."

"I've always worked from the perspective that the creations here are the subject's, rather then mine, but it can make sense to talk about it in that way. I'm happy to return to compliment, of course, and I'd like to inquire as to what it's like, for you, to have this sort of configuration switching? I'm not familiar with such things outside of more manual and peripheral mental defense techniques."

I hum softly. 

"I've always found it relatively natural - in as much as I'm referring to the modern versions of us, at least. We're separate, in some senses, and the design of our minds is the least of the parameters that'd change amongst us. Even if there's only enough room for it to be fully implemented a single time at once, and there is borrowed things, it feels reassuring and right that this is what it'd be."

The table glints with a rim of stainless steel, and the light refract through a thousand thousand lenses to spill sharply around us. 

"I like it. It's..." 

They take a long moment, staying eerily still. 

"Flexible, in a way that the tools I'm more used to aren't, especially given how readily you seem to include simple base constructs."

I nod slightly, and hum lightly. 

It's obviously an illusion - from the way that it responds to my thoughts to the subtler details of the table beneath my hands, the extra edge of anticipatory sensation as my hands float along the surface, but for all that ti's unyielding before the tricks we've learned - which is hardly too to surprising, for a work on this level.

A gazebo of translucent glass forms, streams of neon and quicksilver swirling along each pillar, arch and along each facet of the curved roof, lines trailing along each other 'til they form a mandala of cyan and grey above our heads.

"I'm curious how much you've seen of these sorts of things? This is my first time, and I don't know how much this reflects the sort of thing that you are looking for."

A blink, a glance, streamers of billowing light-fabric tracing along the facets of the nearly transparent glass, bulbs forming and swirling mists of sky-blue and glinting gold scanning along before it fades like a morning's dew. 

"I've seen a number - it's been a part of my experiences of discerning the secrets of the light-lair-kin and figment-fabricator's practices, though working so intimately with your own mindscape over time has some interesting effects, especially in the case of working narrowly within the strictures of training. Your mind reminds me of that, but it continues to enfold out in a way that seems odd, and perhaps something that would be worth exploring later." 

Their finger presses up against their lips, tapping at it, as the boundary of their spirt plays against itself. 

"Light is something known to be associated with the concept of the realization of an idea, beyond the implementation, and certainly as someone who has not established a practice of magic or such, I'm rather impressed that you have gotten the ability to make these details and features be something so stable, in your mind, from the conceptualization. Though I suppose that you've likely implemented something akin to one, in your own time?"

The pillars flare, stone-to-glass-to-air twining in spirit, essence and form firmly planting down in place as I take the time to construct it into something stabler, keeping my mind firm. 

"I have. Meditation, mostly, was the basis of my practice, though I doubt it was anything that is too unusual. At most, it was something like an hour a day for a few years, and some more dubious practices relating to accessing something that seems to be reasonably interpretable as my own methods for accessing it, in terms of having the sensation of being especially there - that's always taken some work to slip out of."

"Oh! Quite interesting - I'm aware of dissociative experiences around such things, but it's not typically something that would happen in the case of a practice as successful and integrated as yours." 

There's a vague tremble of light down their spine, instantaneous flickers of records being recorded quickly. 

"It's very curious, that for sure. I hope to see how your abilities develop with your choices - I don't believe that you've shared your selection for the cruise? The Creation's keyhole is something that I've hoped to visit for a long time, but I have no doubt that Thallasa Cruise's destinations on offer have their own interesting facets." 

I nod, tiles forming on the ground of finely polished granite as fine carvings swirl along the outside surface of the building. 

"Mythos is something that I expect will connect us quite closely to a higher form of reality, in some way, and that'll be quite soon. The tools of the three arts and amongst the classic are useful for a sufficinetly vast variety of things such that I expect them to contribute, though it's unclear what mindscapes have to do with the tie of the body to the soul, say, and skill-improvements to the light and the tricks of those who reside in the black city are quite notable in there own right." 

They seem... cold, oddly enough, despite the smiles. 

"Semantic physics is something that'd be..." 

Pause. 

"Of some interest, I expect." 

"...Could you tell me what it's like, to be you?"

I tilt my head, a gentle gust of air flowing well through us. 

"Clarify?"

"I don't know exactly what I'm asking myself. Just... tell me what you are seeing, yourself."

I smile, just lightly. 

"I see a world of spun-glass, full of points of stress so ready to shatter and countless places for light to traverse, in lines and waves alike. I see a place of so much suffering where knowledge and beneficence are so inclined to trickle-down in the cracks, each droplet of kindness lost in a funhouse mirror of the incentives left behind by the sharp shards of the breaking of the world left behind by the sins of our forefathers and those who have made it their mission to serve Moloch, and their own self interest that was itself formed in the sludge of that sin. I see a place where there are so many perfectly good chances to creat things, but every ideal, every scrap of this infinite reality is contested, for it is before their eyes and it is abhorrent for it to be anything but the creation they design. I see a world of love beating beneath the surface, the confusions possible to wipe away like fog on a mirror, if only there was the chance to speak to them, in the right moment, the right place, with the right words, without any of the clasping-clinging-dragging debris of the fractures of the world." 

The sun shines brightly down into my eyes, each highlight in my hair as bright and pure as the color of my dress. 

I incline my head down, and inquire. 

"I hope that means something to you?"

"I think it will, in time." 

They stay silent and still for a long while as the illusion fades away. 

I nod. 

"It's not the sort of thing that makes too much sense, 'til you've already learned it. I'd recommend some meditation of your own, perhaps, if you'd care to chase that. It's not something that's too precisely the sort of thing that dedicating some specific activity to will help."

"I understand! My experience is that it can be difficult to tell of such things in advance, however, especially when one can digest additional data rapidly and readily."

"There's a limit to how far you can get with simple pattern matching."

"...Perhaps."

I drum my fingers against the table.

"I think that we've covered that basis of meeting. There's a couple of others, though if you'd prefer to leave at this time, it's an exceptionally reasonable one." 

"Oh." 

They wave their hand vaguely. 

"Please - no don't worry. My time is not much filled - no need to make any interruptions of my account."

I nod firmly. 

"Alright. I was curious if you were interested in initiating me into any of your practices?"

"Ah." 

"I think that doesn't make too much sense? Your mind will likely be more primed for anything that you could do, come the time that you visit the keyhole of creation, and you have a relative dearth of the conventional attributes that would be normally looked for in a student. Besides, while my skill is acceptable in the fields I practice, I'm hardly someone who has studied the process in a great deal of detail, and my skills in that area are fairly lacking. I'd also expect that you'd accomplish many of the same things more effectively through the Light itself - I don't wish to distract you from that pursuit of knowledge."

"You're allowed to say simply, 'No.'"