"What's she like?"

"She hit on me. Also volunteered to be a test subject for the AK. Got bored with me when turned down on both."

"Um. That's an interesting set of priorities."

"Yes, a bit."

"Are you ready to test the Killing Curse?"

"I can't even kill a demonic bunny half the time, and I wouldn't count on Maia results to be predictive for a Vala anyway."

"Are people harder than bunnies?"

"Supposedly."

"On the other hand I'd expect the motivation part to be easier for Melkor than a bunny."

"Yes, but I'd expect to need a lot of oomph for a Vala and I don't have enough to reliably compensate for thinking bunnies are cute."

"Is it you and not Timothy because you're worried he'll fight back?"

"Some of 'em might."

"Sure but for the test?"

"The question is whether I can do it; it'd also be interesting to know if it can be done, I guess Timothy could do it for that and if he can't do it I can stop killing bunnies."

"I am not sure I'd find it any easier. I have bunnies down but that's probably cultural differences."

"Does nobody have pet bunnies in 1802?"

"Some people do but we just care about animals a lot less in general."

"Is the wizard gene an on-or-off thing, or are some people more powerful for genetic reasons?"

"I didn't find anything like that but I didn't have data on anybody's power level to put through machine learning."

"I don't know how much data you'd need for that, there've probably been fewer than a hundred famously powerful wizards in reliable recorded history."

"That might be enough if the data weren't noisy and the factors were simple."

"I'll get you a list." He is done turning Cam's guinea pig into a teapot; he turns it back to a guinea pig.

"Still demonic," Cam diagnoses.

He flicks his wand, crosses off an item on a six-foot-long parchment scroll hanging from the opposite wall. "Ah well."

"Ah well." He pats the demonic guinea pig. It doesn't react.