"Okay. There are not so many unproblematically unclaimed areas, but there certainly aren't none. And since I am really quite sure you're here to help, I'll advise you for at least a decade or two... Much as I still have a distaste for bearing authority. Did the United States of America have class divisions and nobility? How was responsibility divided between the nesting subdivisions? Does everyone speak the same language?"

"The United States has class but no nobility whatsoever, just, like, new money and old money and not so much money. Most people speak English but there's a lot of immigrants from elsewhere in the world who often retain their own languages at least for the first generation or two. I don't actually know all that much about what things were the jobs of mayor's offices versus state congress or the governor... at the federal level there were separate legislative, judicial, and executive branches, which I would have taken a test on if I hadn't died, so I do remember somewhat more about those."

Nod, nod. She has written some of this down in her book.

"Governance structures are complicated. Separation of powers is a good mechanism to spread out the burden of nepotism, if that's your goal. As I said before, I'll try to keep it to one or two questions at a time lest I pester you relentlessly. I have time. Last one for now: In your stories, who is most oft the hero?"

"I'm not sure what you mean, there's not a specific character who appears across most stories."

"What sort of person, then? A tough soldier? A protective mother?"

"It can be lots of types of people. I guess it's most common for stories to star young adults and they're usually nice people but I'm not sure how to get more specific."

"Young, hmm? Interesting." 

She shuts her notebook. 

"What would you have accomplished in three days if everything went wonderfully? So we can plan said days."

"Let's see. I'd pick up local etiquette as applies to angels so I don't offend anyone grievously. I'd have a lead on a way to get some magic tutoring, I'm meant to be able to do magic here. I'd have a chance to study a good atlas and ask you questions about everything on it and take notes. I'd know where I was going to sleep, I do still need some sleep though I cut it down, same with where my meals come from."

"Angels are rare semi-legendary beings. People kind of expect you to say heroic things and make demands and generally act towards good. I have chronicles of other angels' actions and people's reactions to them. We should go over that in some detail. I also know magic quite well, but I rarely use it because of the ambient risks associated. I don't have an atlas on me, and my personal library is up in Maell, but someone might have one. To get a place to sleep you will need money or goodwill, both of which can be had for healing, I think."

"Tentative plan for criticism: Spend a while talking about government reactions to angels so you have context. Go present yourself - with my attendance pitched as an interested observer rather than your direct advisor - to Captain Yertann of the Liscor Gate Guard. Offer healing to Liscor's veterans or wounded. They're very good about paying promptly in cash for material assistance like that. Comes from the mercenary outlook. Rent a place to stay separate from this tiny room, unless you're willing to use my bed on the occasion you do sleep, plus an isolated spot for magic practice. Spend some time learning magic from me, if we can locate a suitably isolated area. Ask around Parchment Street where offices and intellectual services are concentrated about an atlas. Liscor does not have a public library, and the private ones are personal affairs."

"Sounds pretty good... ambient risks?"

"Magic causes demons consistently enough that every mage or wizard gets one eventually. It's 'when you get your first demon', not 'if you ever get a demon'. So whenever possible I solve my problems without active magic, and when that's not possible I use as little as I can get away with. I've gotten four demons in my lifetime, and it was extremely terrible every time."

"I should be able to reduce the risk of that. If it's not too sensitive I'd like to know what it's like when it happens, though."

"The first time, I was casting in a warded practice room when the spell twisted out of my control. Foolishly, I tried to wrestle it into order rather than disposing of the energies and activating the room's wards. But a demon emerged from the tangled knot. It was a weak one. A 'mockery'- So named for their habit of being hostile, invisible voices in peoples' heads. Mockeries can't really control people when they enter one's head, but are adept at driving them to rash or unstable-seeming actions. I immediately told everyone about the demonic influence, which is the responsible thing to do- No matter the inconvenience and suspicion. I then spent a month in an isolated, warded room being mocked and derided and screamed at inside my own head by that horrible thing. It could read my mind, a little bit, and kept digging up the worst parts of my life- Personal things which I don't want to elaborate on much. About how my family didn't actually care about me, and the like. It was trying to instill paranoia, and told me I was going to be murdered as an inconvenient threat. It... Did make me anxious, after a while. But after that month of psychological torture, they had located an angel who was willing to help despite my father's reputation- The angel Barqius- And he exorcised me. I was sent back to my studies after another week of recovery."

"The second time, it was a 'wrath'. It was in a smithy, which I was powering and heating by magic. They just try to murder everyone around them in the most brutal fashion possible. It was lucky that the room was full of strong, bulky smiths and plenty of hot metal. We managed to promptly kill it. The third time, it was a 'Pride' that tried to possess me. Only because I had specifically prepared defenses against possession did it fail, and burn to its death on said defenses. The last time, it was a 'Lust' who tried to flee, then to convince me to spare her. I knew without a doubt that she would rape and torture people without hesitation if I didn't kill her then and there, though. Or if she was feeling subtle, to break up happy relationships and turn them to jealousy and hatred as thoroughly as possible. Demons always do. So I killed her."

"That sounds miserable, I'm glad you came through intact in the end."

"I've long since made my peace with it, but thank you. Just know to take the demonic threat seriously. And that this tendency colors people's perception of magic and magic users. As an angel, perhaps you will be able to weather it better than most- They are known opposition to demons, after all."

"I didn't go for particularly demon-slaying powers, but I am definitely against all those things you mentioned. You probably know a lot more about demons than I do, though, Earth doesn't have them - or angels either."

She perks up. "-Does it also have no magic? That's a point of confusion I noticed earlier. It would explain why fueled cars are so important!"

"Yes, also no magic."

A smile. "You must be very curious how it works and what it can do, then."

(Her Magic Theory skill-implant power has been mostly quiet. Without thinking about specifically, it's non-intrusive.)

"It's really exciting! Earth has stories about magic but not a speck of the real thing."

Nod, nod. "Magic is traditionally broken up into colors. There are a few different traditions and frameworks of understanding it, but ultimately they all follow that magic is an energy like heat or lightning or height-potential or pressure. There is another side of the world made of fields of energy that only sometimes interact with matter. Those energy fields - or field, singular, to some understandings - are magic. The colors are the types of energy, or alignment of the energy field. White, Red, Cyan, Green, Black, and Dark, sometimes called Corrupt. Dark is, notably, not the same thing as Black. Additionally, Yellow, Purple, Silver, and Grey- Again, Silver and Grey are not the same- And finally Orange and Navy."

"Casting a spell is the process of using your mind to perceive and influence magic, shaping it into a stable form so that it does what you want. These stable forms are like sculptures in the air, in your mind- They need not be mathematically precise, but if they're not you must develop your artistic intuition for them, to judge whether they'll work or not. The easiest spells are therefore naturally the crudest and most direct ones- Unleashing a torrent of flame from your hands and the like. Enchanting is the process of forcing magic into an object in an ongoingly stable way that changes the nature of the object. The key problem is that strands of magic are unstable and thrash about wildly if handled by unskilled hands. Even a small change in initial conditions can create a very different result, absent active guidance and correction. When magic goes wild, it can very easily form Dark energy, and such energies almost always summon a demon. Most spells use a single color, or two colors that are adjacent to each other on the great wheel. Three colors, or non-adjacent interactions, are much harder to control."

(This all seems to make perfect sense to her, the Magic Theory skill agrees with everything Eirwynne said. She might even be able to perceive magic strands already? Also, Cyan and Navy are clearly two different words. There isnt a word for generic blue.)

"Is the 'hands' part literal, do you move your hands to affect the magic? If so is that related to why the fire would issue from one's hands instead of anywhere else? What are the differences between the colors apart from Dark being the demony one?"

"The hands are literal. You can cast magic with only your mind, but it's more difficult. Hand motions and using objects or materials with the correct resonance make it much easier, especially as a novice. As for the colors, let me say what each is known for briefly. Red- Direct force, energy, fireballs. White- Truth, knowledge, communication, sometimes healing. Cyan- Teleporting and shields, but it's flexible. Green- Healing, altering bodies, surges of might. Black- Stone shaping, making other magic more stable. Corrupt- Causing pain, and demons. Yellow- Chemistry and affecting materials, like 'armor of lead' to make foes stumble. Purple- Obscurement and shadow, spells of confusion. Silver- Always used with other magic, adding conditionals or controls. Grey- Used to oppose other magic. Anti-demon wards. Magic tripwires. Orange- Associated with duels, perfection, glory. Also for... Enforcing boundaries? Call of the Sun is an orange spell that makes it harder to hit you with ranged attacks. Not by blinding foes or anything. Just making projectiles miss. Finally, Navy. My favorite color of magic, Navy is associated with grand but slow workings, like diverting a river over years."

"From those descriptions I'm probably going to be most interested in white and cyan, but it sounds like a broad repertoire will require most of them."

"How exactly do you reduce the risk of demons associated with magic?" Eirwynne wonders even as she draws out a vertical color chart.