Super valid! Opalyn herself won't know the difference but it's probably important to get it right for other reasons!

Oh, if Opalyn herself doesn't know the difference, Oldoria will absolutely bluff its way through this to the horror of anyone who actually knows better.

That works!

One more quick question though, are there also little guys hiding in the bushes that Opalyn needs to catch, or is Opalyn herself doing the magic? It's Opalyn herself, right?

There are elementally-aligned spirit thingies that some people subdue and put into tiny containers, but none of them are as smart as a human or as powerful as a great human sorcerer.

Okayyy, that raises further questions. Like, can Opalyn do any of the types of magic or only certain ones? Does she need to catch any of the spirit thingies to unlock different types of magic? Is there... evolution? Does it happen to the spirit thingies or to Opalyn?

Opalyn feels somewhat sheepish to press Oldoria her library book on all of these points.

Sure, let's say you can do horrible sacrificial rituals in order to turn your captured spirits into more powerful and grotesque abominations!  But if there's any way to do that to a person it sure is not hinted at in this library book!

People can learn magical elements just like they can learn to play musical instruments; which is to say, you can in principle learn to play the tuba, but maybe you will not want to, because it is a tuba.

Wait, is THAT what the Emperor was doing when Opalyn first arrived at court? Practicing a particular element of magic?

Plausibly!  The Bleak Emperor is believed to have lived for centuries.  Imaginably, if you lived long enough, there would come a point in your life when you started learning to play the tuba.  Maybe this has something to do with why he's called the Bleak Emperor.

Okay! This is all starting to add up. Here's what Opalyn thinks she knows:

• There are around a dozen and a half types of magic;
• You can learn these by practicing them;
• The Bleak Emperor has probably learned most or all of them by now, even the relatively useless and dull ones;
• There are also little spirit thingies but they sound optional.

Is all of that correct so far?

Yep, that is totally what was in the book this whole time!

(Of course, the book could be lying.)

All right. So, by cross referencing between the book and Healthy-Orphan's memories, can Opalyn figure out which types of magic she already knows and which ones are totally mysterious? And can she also maybe figure out what happened in the battle when Opalyn ended up in Oldoria?

Orphan primarily lived her life according to the following important truth:  It doesn't actually matter what type your magic is, most things will break if you hit them with 99999 damage.

She mainly used what a book would call 'fire', 'force', and 'dark'.  They were simple.

...it looks like somebody whapped Orphan with a 'ghost' attack, which of course goes right through a 'force' shield and rips out your soul.

99999 damage sounds like a lot! That doesn't even need to be super effective to be super effective!

However it does seems as though Opalyn is going to need to learn some defense, or her soul will also end up shredded.

Good thing the Bleak Emperor set up some magical defense tutoring for her!

What else does the book have to say about how the types of magic relate to each other?

Hmmm. This will take further study to completely internalize.

Maybe the reason she can't actually understand that diagram is that she is exhausted. This has been the weirdest day of Opalyn's life and also it feels like it's been about forty hours long. She should find out how long days are on this planet... after she gets some sleep.

Is there anything like a toothbrush around here? Or something more comfortable to wear to sleep?

More comfortable than a toothbrush?  Absolutely!  They haven't had time to fit any clothes to her; but maids will be hastily loading a closet the size of a medium Earth house with generic evil sorceress clothing, of the sort that you just wrap yourself in instead of it being fitted.

Great. Then Opalyn will change into something comfy and brush her teeth.

This culture does not have a 'toothbrush' preloaded if she wants to stick something like that in her mouth, rather than wearing something approximately that size.  But Orphan has always been extremely healthy; magic-users usually are.  Maybe there aren't any bacteria inside her mouth in the first place?

Don't the bacteria... do something? Maybe that's gut bacteria, maybe the mouth ones are optional. Whatever. Opalyn doesn't care. Bed.

As she presently isn't shielded against at least six different kinds of weird magic even while awake, Opalyn will need to be watched while she sleeps.  However, the Vizier has efficiently located some bodyguards for her, of the sort who are unlikely to whine about sexual consent if Opalyn gets grabby!

So wait... they need to be in the room... watching her... while she sleeps? Do they need to look like that while they watch her?

Could they maybe wear bags over their heads?

No, that wouldn't help, then they'd be EVEN HOTTER in there.

This is so unreasonable!

But Opalyn is very tired, and eventually succumbs to sleep.