The kobold, too.

A cuddlepile: happens.

Gosh who ever could have predicted such an outcome with these three eating a meal together?

Nobody, it's just completely unprecedented!

And eventually lunch is over. The kobold tells Raafi about their Milliways plans for the afternoon, and he is indeed interested in coming to watch. And then the kobold disappears on her errand, and the cuddlepile is down to two.

"Would you like," says Raafi after a few minutes, "to know what the kobold and I disagreed about, the other evening?"

"Um. Kind of? But I sort of got the impression they didn't want to share?"

Nod, pet. "They think it will be to your advantage not to know; I disagree on principle."

"It's not an overwhelming desire, that I find out. I trust them."

"Very well."

Meanwhile, the kobold is back at Occlus' office. How does she seem to be doing?

She has a more complicated setup in her office now, enabling her to work with various trigger conditions that are not conventionally obtainable. She has a datapad full of information on theoretical spell-crafting, translated from books purchased from Bar, which she refers to regularly.

The kobold takes a few minutes to watch her work, and then contributes a plain glowing pebble and a pebble that glows until she puts it down to the collection of trigger-condition items.

"I have a few magic items that the magic-detection sees as Jedi-like that I can bring with me sometime, if you're interested in that."

"Yes. Your books," she indicates the datapad, "have many theories of the origin of magic, but no solid answers. Why is that?"

That gets a bit of a grin.

"Because no one who's found new magic has decided to share that information. It's not very useful, anyway; magic sources are very rare and can only be used once, and I'm not sure people from your world will be able to use them at all. There's a related phenomenon-" she makes a twineportal and retrieves a book, which she places on Occlus' desk.

Occlus leafs through it quickly.

People from the kobold's world experience something the book calls an 'inspired gift'. Basically, every so often - at most once per person, apparently at random - someone will go into a creative fugue and make some sort of object, which is an absolutely perfect rendition of whatever sort of object it is - possibly one they've never even seen before - with minor magical properties. And then when they come out of the fugue, they're much, much better at whatever sort of craft was involved in making their item; the equivalent of a full twenty-year career spent learning it.

Interesting.

"So all spell forms are derived from such an event?"

Nod.

Hmm. Gaining access to the kobold's world is now a much higher priority. Even if she can't personally learn a new form, the only way to get one is from someone who knows it already. Occlus relaxes her control somewhat, her posture becomes slightly more natural.

"That will be all for today, then."

That's.... weird.

Also relatively obvious as a manipulation tactic, if surprising from Occlus in particular. Regardless, the kobold relaxes slightly herself.

"Okay." She disappears.

What's Satele up to?

She's in a Council meeting.

Back to the cave to pick up Ana and Raafi, then.

They are still cuddling by the fire.

Aww.

"How was your errand?" asks Raafi.

"Interesting. I'll tell you about it later. Milliways?"

"Milliways!"

Milliways!

Flying: The Best.

Yes. Yes, it is.

Whee!