"I just meant that practitioners tend to stand out.

What brings you to Toronto?"

"And I meant to imply I don't know what to order," he says, gesturing at the counter with his head and smiling. "And I'm running away from home."

"That explains not using a last name, then. Are you going to be all right by yourself on the normal world side of things?"

"Yeah, I got that covered, thanks. Got a job and all."

"Good. This world's dangerous; having to navigate that one too can't make it easier.

The tea here is good, to answer your question." She orders a black variety.

He'll get some tea, too, then.

It's not exactly private, but no one's paying attention. They can be reasonably confident no one's listening in. "So, what did you want to know about the astrology?"

"Well, Paul didn't know enough about it to really give me any concrete, specific questions, I'm just generally curious about what it is and does."

"It's themed around mirroring arrangements of stars on earth. What it can do varies based on what's in the sky and which of the lights scattered around the city can turn on without being drowned out. A good example would be summoning a construct of a constellation, effective as long as the original is in the sky. That's what the computers are for, is keeping track of what's in the sky for how long and activating the lights. Spirits don't play well with new technology; it's nothing more recent than a light bulb being used for the actual magic part."

"A construct of a constellation?"

"A construct shaped like a ram or bull or hunter. I don't really have a lot of uses for that, especially since it can only happen at specific times and places; it's just the clearest example."

"What other things can it do?"

"There's a long list, and it's fairly disjointed. Flood an area, for instance, or mess with air pressure, find directions. Some teleportation.

It probably sounds impressive if we start from capabilities instead of methods. It took generations to set up; I just inherited it."

"Well, I'm interested in all of it, I think. Paul said it was terribly boring and we haven't gotten to that part yet."

"The how is the boring part. Lots of star charts and computer geekery. It'd be better demonstrated at my place where I can show you the equipment, but that's not strictly necessary..."

Astronomy! Outdated superstitions about stars! Long lists of gadgets and what they're used for! Occasional mentions of her own teacher, frequently with an assertion that he was much better at making this interesting. More long lists of what's in the sky when, and how it can matter on a scale of days or even hours! Origins and why the local spirits bother paying attention to city-sized diagrams! Which parts of the original practice have been modernized and how!

She's not actually very good at explaining it. Unless Sadde finds it interesting just by virtue of her own enthusiasm, in which case she is very good at explaining it.

Sadde finds her enthusiasm very charming and contagious! And is smart enough to compensate for lack of explanation skill and can ask some sharp questions and follow along pretty well.

He might have to point her back on track occasionally if she gets going on the minutiae of operating an ancient proto-computer that a predecessor hooked up and no one ever replaced. The magic side of the setup is more straightforward. (Probably by necessity, since half-sentient spirits aren't big on computer programs.)

She references capabilities in passing sometimes. Some of them sound fairly large-scale. But she evidently thinks of the results mostly in terms of how complex they are to set up and what preconditions they need, which is surprisingly uncorrelated with how useful they are. A series of coordinated flashes spanning the city over three weeks is more interesting than just matching the stars in the sky on the relevant date, regardless of which one summons a giant venomous serpent and which one heats tea.

Well, he'll encourage her but he's definitely more interested in the more powerful things—and also the principles behind everything.

The most basic principle is that the lights she controls are a precise enough analogy for the stars that they can invoke some attribute associated with the constellation. This is usually but not always an obvious attribute—the teleportation works by her momentarily having two locations and then resolving into the one at home base. Probably not the obvious application of a constellation about twins. The lights planted at strategic sites can give a more effective and neater result, but smaller scale is possible. (She shows off some shiny new LEDs she's gotten in the habit of wearing just in case. Getting them positioned to copy a constellation would involve drawing attention from people who wonder why the weird pose, but she assures Sadde it works.)

That's fascinating. He's tempted.

His eyes haven't glazed over at all. (Telling when someone is just listening to be polite is hard, but at least that one's usually a reliable sign.)

The astrology really would be better demonstrated where the equipment is, if he wants to see or try some?

He'd love to!

She apparently can't teleport two people—or else can't teleport right now; it's bad practice to tell people one's limitations but realistically he could probably figure it out by now anyway—so they'll have to go the long way.

The workshop/control center is a one-story building on the outskirts of the city, with a sloped roof and a lot of clutter. It's the size of a garage, and most of it is packed with computer towers or printers filled with paper with perforated edges. And books, most of them mundane astronomy and math rather than magic.

"I'm here more often than my house. I'd say sorry about all the mess, but it wouldn't actually be true. The place wouldn't be itself without it."

He grins. "It's very charming. And fascinating. And I'm a bit miffed that spirits aren't into tech, actual computer magic would be awesome."

"It would be! Maybe eventually they'll get used to it; clockwork is only a few centuries old and that works fine. But who knows what computers would look like by then anyway."

The tech here is very varied. Some of the screens are black and green; some of the machines are even older. Nothing from the last five years, but some of the newer pieces approach that.