Opero waves a hand dismissively. "Impossible things. Teleportation, immortality, time-travel, wish-granting. All the things people like to fantasize about doing because they can't be done."

"Immortality you say?"

"That they can't be killed, that they come back when they're killed, that they never grow old, all sorts of things you know?"

"Huh."

"What are you not going to jump on him and ask all the details like a cold and calculating human flourishment improvement machine?"

"Maybe when someone gives me more time to think about what to ask. Which, you don't think the immortality thing is likely at all?"

"I mean, who knows? Calorism is barely more than a myth. Maybe it really can make you immortal. It just seems weird to me that it would be able to do that when spiritism and humorism can't. I certainly haven't personally witnessed anyone coming back from the dead, calorist or not."

"Well, you did mention that you weren't aware of new worlds until you're contacted to explore this one."

Felix gently elbows Fernando. "Sorry," he apologizes to Opero. "It would be good to find a magic system that does straightforward, no down sides immortality."

Opero shrugs. "It's still kind of hard to believe. Haven't really processed it, I suppose, just compartmentalized it. Focus on the job, deal with the earth-shaking revelation after I get paid, right?"

"Sounds hard."

"Anyway, what can you do?"

"Well, I can use my armor to augment my strength and dexterity. Those two," He indicates Fernando and Henry, "saw me working on my little hut back there, which would probably have taken me a few days at least without it. That and keeping me safe is most of what my soul-dew does. Spirits-wise I use mine mostly for surveillance, and a bit of linguistics. They're how I found out about this town of yours, and in a day or two they'll let me give this thing-" He taps the translation bracelet, "back to you all."

"What sort of surveillance?"

"Listening, following, searching. I had the one that brought me here looking for the sounds of human habitation for example."

"And they can, see things? Or only listen?"

"And how smart are they?"

"I've heard you can get them to see things but I haven't figured it out for myself. And if you can hold your breath for long enough you can put your entire spirit, just your whole entire person into one, but for all practical purposes you can only put about as much thought into them as you can pull through your own mind while you're holding the breath inside. Maybe I'm slow, but I don't generally manage too many thoughts in just, what, five minutes at most maybe? Especially when I'm holding my breath and doing all the mental work to get into the spirit mindset."

"That sounds... complicated, yes."

"Are they invisible? Do you have any around now?"

"They're not completely invisible but they're pretty tricky to spot, especially if you don't know what to look for or it knows how to hide. I do have a few floating around the town acquiring the language for me, but the ones I had looking for humanity almost certainly ran out of vitality and dissipated a few hours ago now, and other than I haven't made any in this world."

"Cool. Cool, cool, cool. Fair warning that spying on people is considered rude in our culture."

"Fair enough. The spirits aren't going to remember who said what or anything, they're just learning the language, but I'll make sure to mention it's frowned upon to my fellows when I head back."

There is a brief pause in the conversation. "Is there anything you'd like to know?"

"Plenty! The first thing that comes to mind is what sort of things your own magic lets you do. I've seen you fly, and you've got this translation thing which I still have no idea how works, but what else can it do, commonly anyway?"