"How come?"

"Oversimplified into a single sentence: Quintessence and mundane matter don't mix well."

"But healing is a miracle."

"It doesn't heal the soul. So fundamentally what healing does is query the world about 'what is this supposed to be', and rearranges things so that it happens. That involves a bunch of - guesses, more or less, careful and optimized ones, about what healthy people look like, backed up with records of what this person was like in the past, but the soul changes and ages too, and if you just revert something completely to the past, the soul doesn't quite fit anymore, and memories can be lost, and that makes it worse. So little things add up. Greater healing can make someone age much more gracefully. Hale and running and fighting at age one hundred. But it can't do young forever without effectively cloning a younger version of that person without any of their memories or experiences since- Which is problematic in several ways. Or 'being an angel', that also confers eternal youth."

"Gotcha. Why is turning virtue into quintessence worse than the other way around?"

"Quintessence is metaphorically - volume, in the three dimensional sense. Substance and energy. It can provide more room for miraculous machinery. And virtue is - metaphorical surface area. Alignment with Heaven? It can make quintessence use more efficient, like arranging a bunch of puzzle pieces so they fit into a smaller box, which is the nature of the conversion. I apologize. It's very difficult to describe."

"...wow, what a weird concept. Uh, can you recap where I'm at pointswise, I'm starting to be worried I made an arithmetic mistake and want to write it up neatly."

At length, the angel produces a table, drawn in more spare paper.

"Oh, thank you for laying it all out like that, that's awesome... Fortune sounded decent too..." She flips back in her notes. "Four points. I feel like none of these numbers work out really elegantly and it's frustrating, are there any little tidbits I might like to handle all this more efficiently?"

"I'm not sure what you mean by little tidbits besides small things you might buy? Blessing of Immaculate for one quintessence; You and your clothes remain magically clean without having to put any effort into this. The first level of many Foundations cost one apiece, such as improved senses, regeneration, strength, superior wings, or appearance. The miracle of prayer costs but one virtue. Babel can be expanded to apply to animals, though they are not truly intelligent, for one. The blessing of expertise allows the inclusion of one new skill to your mind as if you had studied it dedicatedly for half a decade, for one quintessence. The blessing of Narcissus makes your surroundings more beautiful over time, not applying to people unless they want it do, for one. Immunity to pressure - gas and liquid - or to radiation for one. Notably, air pressure is the main injurious effect of explosions, aside from shrapnel.

Note also that you will receive a single Relic, a powerful divine artifact to aid you, we have not discussed these yet."

"That's exactly what I meant, yeah. Regeneration's plausibly good to have. Can I have - example conversations I could have with animals - and do these places have cooler or more varied animals than Earth? Do I have to pick the skill as part of picking the blessing, and is 'magic' too broad?"

"The first level of regeneration may be partially redundant with the miracle of healing, but it will save you from bleeding to death and reverse other severe harm, like head trauma enough to recover and heal yourself in some cases. Astrata and Virata both have fantastical animals, from dragons to psychic fish. Though dragons are people, some of their cousins are not. You might promise a bird food in exchange for looking for, say, a man with a red scarf, or a person with a shiny hat, and then having it keep to the deal, but more complex instructions would confuse it. You might discuss with a snake how being warm is good and things that are bigger than it are scary, or with a dog how much it loves its people and better explain how to do tricks. I had seen users of the Blessing of Doolittle ride dinosaurs into battle in the past. You do have to pick the skill, and 'magic' is very broad. The narrower it is specified, the more you'll learn. Additionally, we cannot teach you the direct manipulation of magic energy. Magic is different from quintessence. It would be theory, which would still help greatly. You might recognize other peoples' spells on a glance and would certainly learn the actual channeling quicker."

"It's called the blessing of Dolittle? Cute. How much is the reduced need for sleep?"

"Five or six hours a night- One. Once a week- Three. It also boosts your physical resilience."

"Physical resilience like..."

"Specifically stamina and endurance, the ability to run and move and climb and fight through exhaustion."

"Huh. I guess that'll be good if flying is tiring, though without wings and with dyspraxia I didn't do much running around. How come there's no way to get more quintessence besides trading virtue in for it two to one?"

"There actually is. The body of an angel can be well sealed and contained. Forty quintessence is the maximum to allow this. Anything higher and your incarnation will shine like a beacon to those who can sense such things. This will attract attention. And alert those who see it that you are more powerful than an ordinary angel. If you limit it to two or three, the effect should not be too severe, but ten or greater... I recommend against."

"...huh. And it would mostly attract negative attention?"

"Mostly, yes."

"Where am I going to land?"

"In a city where you will be unremarkable, with unremarkable local clothes. Should you wish to choose an ally, near them and they will be aware of you and seek you out."

"...choose an ally?"

"The last two choices for you are a relic, and an ally. You may forgo either or both. The ally would be one of the faithful, who believe in Heaven and angels as a force for good and wish to help others, who would be called by divine revelation to meet you and support you, at least at first."

"Huh. And otherwise I just show up and figure everything out alone?"