Aeslin shakes her head.  "Disquieting idea.  The Maxwellian Demon, I mean."  She brandishes a new wand, somewhat lighter-colored than her own.  "Here's the tayrilee wand; it's supposed to be the best for beginners.  Try it?"

(She'd better not drop more hints about official secrets with this newcomer, Aeslin reminds herself.  Even if she's got new magic ideas that just might be relevant.)

"It doesn't...seem very worry-worthy to me?  The 'demon' is really just a plot device for something my humans have no idea how to make.  And the rest is pure math.  It doesn't bite.  Also, it's Maxwell's demon like some mathematical equations describing physical behavior are Maxwell's equations; not Maxwellian.  It's a possessive."  ...Annnnd she gets ye wand!  "...Alright, so, now that I have the wand...uh, well...what do I do with it, again?"

"Uh - yes, the wand!"

Her smile starts out a touch nervous but quickly brightens.

"Hold it in either hand.  To start with... start with the kids' light spell.  That's one of the ones that really is do-what-I-mean.  You can wave the wand in a small circle if you want, but the important part is to visualize a small light on the end of the wand and envision the magic flowing up through the wand to make the light."

"Heh, if I'm doing visualization trickery I should probably say 'Lumos'.  That woman is a horrible person whose name I refuse to perpetuate, but damn if she didn't have a knack for doggerel Latin spell names.  Anyway."  She points the wand at a convenient wall, and...tries visualizing things, her way.

From environment import magic; let magic equal light(435 THz); magic -> vector-to-wandtip -> conic-projection(15°);

It's not a valid program in any language she knows, but she does know what it means.

Mira feels all up and down her forearm some tingling and rippling, almost as if she'd stuck it in some moving water - except she's not actually feeling it with her senses; it's sort of like she's imagining it but also sort of like a lucid dream in her waking life.

-- She might see a very faint red glow at the tip of the wand.  Or maybe she's just imagining it.

"Did you feel something?  How were you imagining it?"

"...Definitely something happened, let's try that again..."

let light == get-magic-from(self,earth); let flow(light(600THz, 60W), output = new point(wand.tip), perturb(sphere));

It's a lot easier to hold on to the state of feeling mana when she knows what the heck it feels like, even if it doesn't feel like a feeling should.

The tingling is much stronger this time, but there's a feeling of turbulence in the flow - like air bubbles are mixed with the water and stopping the pipe for a few moments.  Or maybe it's not water; it feels somewhat more solid, almost like mud or mush.  It's moving through her arm and her hand to the wand, where it's causing the wand (again, like in imagination or a dream) to ripple in her hand.

And she sees a shining light on the tip of her wand.

It's not a full 60 watts - maybe 45? - but it's a light!

(If she bothers to look away from the light, she might also notice her arm is turning red.)

"You did it!  You can do magic!  How --"

Aeslin's eyes go even wider.

"-- wait, stop!  Er, drop the wand!  Your arm!"

"Blagh.  I'm going to feel whatever that is tomorrow, I'm sure."

Yeah she stopped that the moment she felt blockages, and if it doesn't stop on its own she will indeed yeet the fucking thing.

"Note to self: 'self' is not a good source of magic.  But what I'm wondering is what the hell this backlash is, physiologically, and what the hell causes it."

"No, it's not!  We're not Elves or Dragons; we don't have any usable magic in us - and I guess you just proved you're the same sort of human in that way too.  You were trying to summon magic from somewhere that really doesn't have it... though also from somewhere else that does, given that you got a light?  Just what were you visualizing that second time?"

"...It has something.  Or if it didn't before it might well now.  The feeling was a clog, not - it's the difference between a clot and an embolism and I doubt you actually know what those are on account of medicine being a specialized field - anyway, it might've felt like nothing was there for a second, but then it didn't.  Or maybe that was the - anyway, I think that whatever that psychosomatic whatnot was, it was possibly a consequence of magic getting dragged through the me.  Somehow.  Which is odd, I'm pretty sure the visualization wasn't supposed to...

"Oh, but would it have been a one-way valve in practice?  Hell if I know.  I'm definitely not a magic plumber."

She'll transfer the wand to her other arm, make a frustrated noise because now she can't stop thinking about drawing magic from/through herself so casting's right out unless she's extra careful...

"...so what happens if you try to put magic in a human, anyway?  Because I can't get my brain to stop thinking about this so I'm going to be useless at casting until it up and quits.  Or I suppose I could and not self, but that's...high risk tolerance."

"Yes, you were dragging magic through you... or that's what it looks like; we haven't quite proven you're standard-human so let me check -"

She pulls out her wand, flicks it in the direction of Mira's reddened arm, and then nods.

"Yes, a standard flow burn.  You were feeling the flow of magic in your arm, right?  That's what happens when you're not visualizing it quite the right way - you need to focus the visualization so it's flowing through your wand and maybe your hand around the wand and no other part of you.  Otherwise, if you're drawing the magic through you, you get - well, that.  Or worse if you do it too much.  I may have tried to make myself an Elf when I was young and stupid... and all I got was some hurt and a reference to a monograph on why it wouldn't work that it took me another couple years to really understand.

"Don't worry; it'll heal by itself in a day or so.  And it doesn't stop you from casting as long as you do it focused right."

"Yes, yes, the problem is my hyperactive problem-seeking missile of an imagination.  ...Anyway.  Really want to see that monograph, actually, if you have a copy, but.  Where were we?  You were going to ask something?"

"Yeah, it's in the library."  She gestures off vaguely.  "Anyway, flow burn or not, you're getting it a lot faster than most children!  Before you try it again, let me check - what were you visualizing?"

"I was mostly visualizing it as computer code.  Not in any real programming language, but it was a helpful metaphor.  So something like - oh, hm, I probably ought to be thinking more in terms of HTTP than object-oriented...well, maybe a little of both...and it's not like I'm not throwing pseudocode functions around willy-nilly already...Excuse me.  That was a bunch of jargon.  But yeah, uh, I just...specified what it ought to do.  Hm, I wonder if I can..."

for(int i = 0; i<5; i++) { make-light(msource = Magic.Ambient, lfreq = 435THz, pshape = Sphere.default(r=2in.), pvector = this.wand.tip*1.01, duration = 500ms) this.sleep(500ms);}

If this works, it ought to create a red light that blinks five times, cycling every half-second, drawing from ambient magic for power.  Of course, she doesn't know if magic works like this, but she's going to darn well try.

She feels the slush - or water? - flowing over and through her wand-hand in the same illusionary way, and then rippling up the wand.

A dim two-inch-radius ball of red light blinks on.

Then it blinks off.

The magic flow almost stops then; it's no longer a current but just a tingling at her hand and wand.  The light doesn't come back.

"Did you turn it off on purpose?  And did you mean to make it that dim - if not, you might want to focus on visualizing the magic flow better?"

...She pokes the magic flow (this.wake()) to see if it goes on again.  "Yeah.  Maybe."

It tingles more for a moment, but then nothing.

... maybe she should try the whole visualization again?

...

Fine, universe, she'll try turning it off and on again.

for(i=0; i<5; i++) {this.out(new Light(Frequency f = 435THz, Duration d = 500ms, Shape s = new Shapes.sphere(r=5cm), Position p = position.fromVector(this.wand.toTip()*1.01), maxBrightness=60W)); this.wait(500ms);}

...And if that works, she does it again, except bumping up the tine to 5000ms to see what happens when she moves it.

The light shows up again!  And then it goes off!  And nothing else!

"Are you trying for something more elaborate?  You need to know tricks to do some more elaborate things; there's a reason the light spell's the first thing we teach children."

"Mhm?"

for(i=0; i<5; i++) {this.out(new Light(Frequency f = (435+(75*i))THz, Duration d = 500ms, Shape s = new Shapes.sphere(r=5cm), Position p = position.fromVector(this.wand.toTip()*1.01), maxBrightness=60W));}

(There's a brighter light now, lasting half a second, but no repetition.)

"What're you trying for?  And you mentioned computer code - how're you using that?"