"You're welcome," he says, and bows, and disappears.

Mirelótë sits in the garden and sings.

A few hours later he returns with a key with a piece of metal with a number written on it dangling from it and a woman with a long black plait and skin darker than a Vanya's.

"This is your tutor, Shepenwepet; if you don't get along with her I can find another."

"Pleased to meet you."

She smiles back. "Quite likewise."

"Where do we start?"

"The start is learning to sense the magic around you."

"Okay. How is that done?"

"The easiest way is as an exercise of Sympathy--have you worked anything out about your resistances?"

"I have some guesses but nothing solid; do you have advice on that?"

"Guesses are often accurate, but the most reliable way to be sure is to do enough magic to have a noticeable impact and compare the impacts to each other."

"I am better at Sympathy and Effort than Conquest, to about the same degree; I think I would have been very vulnerable to Conquest as a child but have tended to veer away from those mental habits for the same reasons I am now better at the other two; and I do not think I am in danger of becoming - more sympathetic - than I already have, to the degree I might be in danger of excess stubbornness."

"Sympathy, then. The basic exercise is to--persuade the world to give you information about it."

"Is there more detail to be had or should I begin with that?"

"You want to ask it about a particular thing, and since you're a beginner it's best if it's something that you genuinely prefer to know apart from completing the exercise."

"Are there things that require enough magic that I might be startled by pain or mental effect if I naively asked?"

She shakes her head. "With anything but Conquest it takes time to ramp up to the higher pain levels. You can always stop if it gets higher than you were expecting."

All right.

She would like to know how close this world is to hers. She has traversed the distance herself; it would be reasonable for her to have the information.

Pain starts to build.

She disconnects anything that is too distracting.

Pain: keeps building for a while.

"It is possible I have picked too difficult a question. Can I assume that as long as it hurts I'm making some progress?"

"...With Effort, yes, with Sympathy not necessarily."

"I'll pick something simpler." How big is this planet? She could guess based on curvature and gravity but surely the magic won't mind helping her out.

It hurts!