"That's helpful, thank you Eleanora. Are those the only choices to be made about how you imbue us with power?"

"No, not quite. In addition to the rituals I described and the two other relatively-safe ones - overcharging your soul with direct energy for the smaller, opening the veil to the afterworld for the larger -  there are two others. In one, I simply do as much as I possibly can to fill your soul with power until it's full to bursting. It would not leave you with long to live - a fortnight, maybe a week - but it would leave you with forty-seven alms altogether. Combining that with anything else would almost certainly cause you to die tonight. The last is to give you my power directly. If we had a week, I could embed it in you firmly, but as it is, it would leak away slowly starting the moment I pass away, and take anything else you have with it. In twenty years at most, you would no longer be a mage. But for three sacrifices, you'd receive twenty-five alms instead of fifteen."

"Could you give us both your personal power?"

"Yes. The time is more of a restriction than the total - you'd still be each getting about half of what I could handle personally."

"My instinct here, before we've looked at the disciplines of magic, is that we plan by default to each take one of the special rituals - I take power regeneration and you skill, probably - and opening the veil, and end with twenty alms each. And if we think that's not enough to deal with Mister Godiria and friends, we take Eleanora's power and hope we can put together people to defend the city once we lose our magic."

"Aww, but I want both."

"So do I, but having the power to beat them comes first. If we see clever tricks to win with less power, we can switch to both taking both the regeneration and the skills."

"Oh, fine, be responsible."

"Let's hear the disciplines there are, in slightly more detail?"

"Aura - strengthens your body with your soul, in the basic form enough to win any physical fight with a non-mage almost trivially. The rests let you shape it further from your body in various ways, all limited in distance."

"Fire - throw and then manipulate fire of higher intensity. Can be used cleverly, but overwhelmingly destructive, often self-destructive. Some explosive infusions and force-multipliers exist."

"Wind - versatile generalist magic. Motion, defense, razors, sound control. Excels at speed, can usually be beaten by specialist schools in other respects."

"Void - subtle support magic, rarely with direct combat applications. See in darkness, then move rapidly through shadows, store objects, sap senses with an extended touch, plant hidden bombs, or create additional limbs."

"Questions?"

"It sounds like anyone who might come near an enemy mage is advised to know the basics of Aura? Oh, also, under what conditions are we likely to have to fight them? Stealth? Open confrontation?"

"I'd advise that, yes. Unless you plan to hang back entirely like some illusionists and puppeteers. For a confrontation, there are fifteen primary nodes in the structure of the bindings. The three seals you will need to protect could be at any of those nodes, and you and they will likely have to investigate all of them. They range from the deep abyssal catacombs to the wind farm to the upper reaches of Horizon Towers to the middle of the Lantern District."

"Make sure we get that list before you start to - lose consciousness? Can you tell us which in advance? Oh, does wind allow flight?"

"I will. They move, and my death will likely move them again. I should be able to share with you what the sensation of a nearby seal feels like, and with the appropriate magical skills with Life, that would let you sense them at range. The same wind skill that allows rapid movement allows a controlled glide, but true flight is a master's skill, either a wind master or mixed study with fire."

"Let's hear the other disciplines, then."

"Animation - principally puppeting a handful of humanoid shapes, but advanced skills allow flexibility of shape, use of the self, and manipulating and enlarging terrain. Range of control is limited, and its strength is principally limited by mental focus; beginners rarely can manage two, let alone five."

"Illusion - another which requires mental focus. Disguising small areas or the self is the basic technique; large areas, impenetrable darkness, and disguising others are advanced ones. Direct attacks on emotional state, and implanted orders into non-mages, are also possible."

"Life - both bolstering what exists, and sensing it. The basic technique removes bodily needs while active, and healing is a common specialty. Sensing large areas and distinguishing mages and non- is the technique I mentioned before; a sixth sense for immediate danger is also possible."

"Those are the true disciplines I can impart. But I also have old relics, drained of power but still shaped, which I could re-empower with the magical potential you are developing. Several are one-use-only; a key which leads to my home through any door, a ring which stores a single spell that will need no focus. Others will last - a sword that channels aura and an artificial arm that does so on its own. An expert puppet. Some other things."

"Life - does that include sleep? I think we clearly want that ranged sensory technique. Maybe combined with the large-area illusion trick?"

"Hell yes, I want those. And probably disguising others and healing. What would that cost me?"

"It includes sleep," she confirms, "And that would be nineteen of your twenty alms, as you presently plan it. With only the wakening ritual, not the mana-absorption core. If you wanted both you'd have to drop mending or disguise, and would have no room for aura."

"That's not necessarily prohibitive if I can do a good ambush composition. Let's see, speed and sound from Wind, Aura basics and protection, and whatever is the best burst weapon from those two. What's that look like?"

"Seventeen alms if you choose the Vacuum technique from Wind - it's a highly destructive ball of compressed wind, hard to deliver much further than arm's reach but extremely destructive."

"Assume we stick with those ideas. What else could be done with the extra power?"

"With a single alm, basic Aura Awakening or one of my relics. With the three you have, Tseonur - the basics of anything. Dangerous fire manipulation, sight in darkness plus a relic, basic puppeteering, basic illusions, or life's Abstinence. Or you could learn the air-scythe close combat technique or the cloak of wind projectile defense."

"Going with basics of something they have a master in seems unwise. I guess it's a matter of whether learning the basics of Void is enough of an advantage long-term, or whether I'd prefer to pick up a duplicate."

"If we both lose the need for sleep, we can be working half again as much for the time we're in conflict."