She solicits a square from him and creates a Rubik's cube whose sides are all the same color - the same as her coins - and fidgets with it.

Nom.

"So.  We've got magic."

"We do."

"What are we gonna do with it?"

" - could we pause time outside the - this - while we think?"

"That is a good idea."  He fishes in the coinpurse.  "We got two hexes and looks like ten pentagons left.  Is this worth a hex?"

"I - think that's up to you," she says.  "If you're gonna be making most of them."

"I don't mind fucking myself up," Leo says.  "But I'll try it with a pent first."

He composes his wish, and the pentagon disappears.  There is now a blue lightswitch, on the wall next to the desk, with a pause sign on top and a play sign on the bottom.

She flips it up to the pause position; lets out a breath, relaxes a couple more notches.

"Why blue?"  Curiously.

"Cuz time is blue."

"Of course!"

Grin.

"...You sound less freaked.  I'm glad."

"Yeah.  It was like..."

"If we leverage this right we could cure - everything, we could cure nonconsensual death in full generality.  Make hexes, find more trustworthy people to make more hexes - just off the top of my head we could make - magic items that make infinite food, for people, and if we could create arbitrary pentagons we could just travel around handing them out to everyone.  Trinkets that unfold into houses, or, or blankets that you can crawl under and find a whole living space in.  Or a teleporting homeless shelter, or a million things.  And - "

" - and someone dies every ten seconds.  So it had to be perfect and it had to be as fast as we could.  But now that we've paused time for everyone but us we can afford to take time to breathe."

"You're a good - gal.  Is guy gendered, are you a good guy?"

She giggles.  "I'm a good gal."

"You're a good gal.  All right, I'm gonna expand the secret lair a bit, spend down our pentagons."

He stacks his pentagons in his hands, and one by one they disappear, widening the room, brightening the lights, adding doors to the walls.

"I don't mind making more pentagons or hexes, but I would very much prefer torturing myself in creative new ways to just the same thing over and over again.  It's the variety and the exploration of experiences that draws me to it.  But I can get by for a while just doing new things with the suicide leaves."

" - I will trust you about your tolerances," she says, as much to herself as to him, and then, tentatively: "...I like mezzanines and natural light?"

"Hmm," he says, and spends a pentagon.

A new door appears, with a blue "Kaylee" nameplate on it; he ushers her to it and opens it for her.

"I give you," he says, "mezzanines and natural light."

It's a great hexagonal tower, with five storeys above and below the entrance; all the walls are glass, and the windows on each face look out onto a different color of sky - clear day and cloudy sunset and blue-orange twilight, bright starry desert night sky and dark cloudy thunderstorm and beams of sunlight through gray and gold clouds.  Each storey has a balcony, a continuous four-face crescent, and two walls of nothing but windows.

"Oh wow," she says softly.  "It's incredible, thank you - "

He elbows her gently.  "Hey, don't mention it.  And feel free to tweak it, if you like, it's a bit off-the-top-of-my-head."

"I love it."

"I'm glad.  I'm gonna head into my room.  There's a red light on the door, that'll turn on if there's any suicide plant in existence in the room, and any suicide plant venom or hairs that leave the room will disappear.  Feel free to conjure some furnishings for your mezzanines while I'm gone, if you like.  I'll come out in a little while with a whole lot of coins."

"All right."

He comes out in a little while with a whole lot of coins.