Bella's curious about the magic too and will add her attentiveness to magic questions from other people!

Using magic is kind of indescribable! He barely knows enough healing to close up scrapes, healing and construction are two entirely different branches. Construction-type magic consists of claiming 'motes' that exist everywhere, imbuing them with energy, and then willing them to do things in the right way to have the result you want, but it's more complicated than it sounds. Programming is just telling the computer what to do, he jokes. Some of the simplest work is making hard stone flow like clay. They can turn water into ice and then screw around with the ice. They can make spheres of darkness and light. They can blow air around, or fix the magic to a small tube and add firemotes to make a hair dryer- A lot of construction work isn't literally just putting walls up, it's setting up the magic appliances and making it so that people can refill them.

"Refill them with - motes?"

"Yeah, or no. The motes are the same, they have amounts of energy, like temperature but not. You make - siphons. They can do mortal kinds of magic at it and re-energize them."

"How long does it take you to learn how to do this?"

"It's a process. I'm still picking up new tricks and getting faster. They do a good job training you though."

"Five minute warning," calls one of the test proctors.

"Would you recommend the job?"

"Oh heck yes. One hundred percent. It's not perfect but nothing is, it's steady, it's interesting, and you get to help people."

"Most substantial considerations against?"

"Pocket dimensions get kind of samey. No chance of retirement or a career change any time soon. Though, that's also a positive in my mind."

She won't hog the entirety of the last five minutes.

The thing the guy misses most about Earth is Blockbuster and his PlayStation. And Vegas. The thing he likes most about Earthsea is seeing new towns, he always gets the locals to tell him stories or plays or whatever. Two of the last minutes are wasted by that same religious lady. He's telling a cute anecdote about a couple of kids who thought they were tricking him out of little magic toys when the proctor starts shuffling everyone out.

Next is physical exercise! Yaaaay. Bella gets different exercises than everyone else. If the others suspect something weird, they don't do more than glance between her and the proctors about it.

Bella will lift weights and stuff! She is not super athletic but she has been doing alternative gym class for a while.

They keep steadily upping how demanding the exercise is for a while.

Well, she doesn't need to lift anything heavier than her backpack on her way home and also probably they will let her take a break if necessary before she goes to crash in the hotel.

They give her cooldown time, yeah. They have changing rooms and showers for everyone, if they want it. After that everyone gets a quick interview with some of the proctors for any questions they might have.

Bella would like to know if the annoying guy was a plant or just an annoying guy!

"He was just an annoying guy. Mark Stroffer, if you want to look him up. These test days are mostly about seeing how hard someone is to work with, and their general attitude."

"I don't think I will look him up. Why couldn't I see the illusion the first time?"

"Mr. Henson's comment about magic resistance was accurate. Some people are magic resistant. You're one of them. Blank to some kinds of passive sensing, and apparently to illusions you're not aware exist. I see here the GPMG testing had to use an alternate long-exposure mode for that reason. It's a positive mark for you."

"Huh. And that works on Earth? Will it be more powerful off it?"

"It works on Earth." He looks to his screen for a moment. "It's the difference between passive and active, basically. A computer would not work on Earthsea, but a faraday cage would. It won't make you more powerful, though 80 is still quite respectable."

"Are there a lot of kinds of... passive sensing?"

"Yes. Magic is incredibly varied. We can't magically sense your emotions or where your attention is directed, or directly observe your soul. We don't know the full extent of this effect and more active testing would be hard to arrange."

"Do you not usually warn people who don't have this property that they might have their souls directly observed and such??"