"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.

"Consecration. It's not perfect, though, just helpful. I did originally have the idea of deliberately summoning demons so as to be able to promptly kill them but was told that they'd catch on soon and put my accomplices at risk. What do the colors' positions on the chart represent? Why isn't dark magic on there?"

"...I must admit that idea does not fill me with confidence, no. Dark magic isn't here because it doesn't have any adjacencies, some charts mark it separately, off to the side. Adjacent colors can interact without immediately decaying into dark magic. This makes a lot of more complicated spells possible, though one is advised to keep it to closed loops-" She taps the chart. "Such as yellow-cyan-black, the alchemist's tricolor. If you see reference to 'alchemist spells', they mean spells that use yellow, cyan, and black magic. Same with the other tricolors. Cyan red orange is the evoker's tricolor, then we have the mystic's tricolor here with red, green, and purple, and at the top the druid's tricolor- White, navy, and green. Silver and grey are special cases- They corrupt less easily than other strands, even with non-neighbors, and can to an extent work with any other color. It is possible to construct spells composed of, say, red and black, with cyan as a bridge between them so that red and black don't directly touch. But it's very difficult, especially since each color has a complicated set of interactions with each other color. There are two broad approaches to learning these interactions- Careful study and mathematical modeling, or simple practice."

"Is simple practice doable without demon problems, like on special practice spells or something?"

"Not really. When you're pushing your limits, you must expect to screw up once in a while. Even if you're perfect almost all of the time, 'always' is a very strong qualifier. Thus, isolated areas, and someone who can try to deal with demon problems, are recommended."

"What's the standard practice for having people on standby to deal with demon problems?"

"Apprenticeships are standard. Some places have universities of magic instead, with professors and older students assisting- And some people teach themselves. Rooms specially enchanted to draw away energy from a fumbled spell as quickly as possible can reduce the risks."

"Is it really rare for there to be a consecrated area like I can do?"

"Moderately rare, I would say. I've had the luxury of casting in consecrated areas before but not often. I think most angels find it difficult, or have a limited use, and the effect fades eventually too."

"Yeah, I can't go around doing it constantly."

"Alas. More magic discussion, or the next step on our tentative plan- Talking about how governments tend to act around angels?"

"Second thing, it's more short term important."