And now Thorn wants to know lots more about all of that.

Kaede can go into lots of detail—he is a huge magic nerd—but it's from a scholar's perspective, with many third-person pronouns and descriptions of observable effects. He knows barely anything about metamancy, for aforementioned lack of records, but says he believes most ancient artefacts and scrolls are generally better because metamancers used to help make them.

And finally: "What else are you afraid of?"

"Those were the only things I was afraid you'd ask, Master, but I'm afraid I'll end up like the person who was screaming when I arrived."

Smile. "She has an attitude problem. Do you have an attitude problem?"

"I don't know what you'd consider an attitude problem, Master, but I would hope I don't."

"Tell me what you're thinking."

"I'm thinking I'm exhausted and still terrified but less than I was before and I probably shouldn't be less terrified than before and I don't know what an attitude problem is and I want to leave this place and I'm trying to find a way to do it or some loophole in your orders or questions but I can't and I don't know what to do and I hate this whole system and want to burn it to the ground and if I brought enough mages from back home I could but I think I'm going to die here—"

"If you do think of any loopholes in my orders or questions," says Thorn, smiling, "bite through your tongue, lie still on the ground, and brute force the cube root of one trillion and ascending integers from there until further notice from me or Blossom." He indicates a fairy in the corner.

...this is not a question, so he cannot answer it. He merely shivers.

"Accurately describe your physical needs so I don't kill you by accident."

"I do not know the exact quantities so these will be approximate based on what I remember humans in general need. I need to sleep at least around six hours per day on average but if that's all I get for too long my mental capacities will deteriorate. I need to go to the toilet at least once a day. I need to eat around fifteen hundred to two thousand calories per day, and I do not know the balance of nutrients I need other than that to survive but it includes things found in meat, grains, and fruit. I need to drink around two litres of water per day. If I do not move my muscles for too long they will also deteriorate. I have approximately five litres of blood in my body and if I lose too much of it I will die. I cannot hold my breath for longer than around a minute. I need to not be set on fire..."

And he can go on.

Thorn cuts him off eventually. "Kneel here."

He does.

"You may eat what you are hand-fed." And he feeds Kaede nibbles of weird fruit and nuts.

...okay. Why. He cannot ask. Is this a kink. Is Thorn seriously—

—he will just not think about it and obey.

And he is fed a reasonable amount of food and then Thorn tells him to think about ways he could help collect magic from his world from Thorn, and several people including Blossom are authorized to give him orders which Thorn tells him to obey as though they were enforced, and then he is escorted to a room and told he may sleep.

Kaede is very good at coming up with plans to collect a lot of magic from his world. He hates himself for it. Partway through it he realises from Thorn's questions there must be another world most humans come from, here, and that's why Thorn doesn't know anything about magic. He doesn't know how he'll use that but he'll use that.

He doesn't immediately fall asleep. He's too busy shivering violently and anticipating what's going to happen. But eventually he does succumb to his physical and emotional exhaustion.

Then he can wake up to more screaming!

He doesn't scream. He's not stopped but he isn't allowed to do that. He just wakes up having had far too little sleep for this and decides not to waste time hoping yesterday was a dream because that's extremely unproductive.

Also he has to resume thinking about what Thorn wanted him to.

...right that. But he may also try to sleep. He tries to sleep. He fails to try to sleep. He resumes thinking. The panic does not help with the thinking. He starts going in circles after a while.

Somebody, not Thorn, comes in to hand-feed him and give him water and ask what he's thought of.

The best way for Thorn to get magic is to get people who can do magic, and getting people is something this wretched system is so very good at. But more than that, if he could get his hands on an actual, real metamancer he'd be set, all he'd need other mages for would be as mana batteries and he'd only need the one vassal to do all the things. He can, to start, perhaps just purchase or steal some artefacts and scrolls and/or envassal more mages, but the best long-term strategy would be that. Now, people don't announce they're metamancers, but the Kingdoms have a large enough population he would be surprised if he couldn't find them if he had the right people as his vassals, and Kaede knows who the right people are.

The fairy takes notes and then asks him what he's thinking.