"It's not that I need to invent it particularly quickly but that its use for its intended purpose will need some non-dwarf participants I was hoping to hire while I was on the surface anyway. I'm trying to invent a light that will let plants grow underground and then I'm going to give them to the casteless, but somebody has to stand between them and the other dwarves and hold the money symbolically so it's not illegal for them to sell their plants."

"Bright and full-spectrum."

"Well, best of luck," says Metella.

"Thanks!"

"He'll probably be willing to help as time allows."

Annie giggles.

"How would you check?"

"Well, I could say 'with magic', but that doesn't seem like a very satisfying explanation... it would be a pretty trivial test, though. Approximately as easy as holding something up to a flame to see if it catches."

"Is magic just that inexplicable to nomages or does it just seem like a waste of time?"

"I could explain a more complex process more easily by listing the steps and explaining what it was meant to accomplish. For example, I could tell you that casting a spell with a staff involves channeling power through the staff. With this... well, imagine trying to explain how interacting with the material world works to someone who doesn't have a body. The explanation references senses and capabilities that the listener doesn't have, and there just isn't a way to get across what you really mean by 'picking up a rock', however much detail you go into about moving your limbs around. Except that in the case of magic I also have to explain it in a language mostly used by people who don't have magic either, so most of the ways mages talk about magic even to each other are limited by our insufficient vocabulary."

"Fair enough."

"It sounds like a depressing place to me. If no doubt full of otherwise hard-to-obtain information."

"I didn't find it so bad, growing up there," says Metella. "The problems are... less overt than they might sound. And the library is very nice."

"How do you not notice being kidnapped, that sounds pretty overt."

"Being kidnapped was actually a step up for me, but that's not a story I'm comfortable sharing."

"...Oh."

"In general, though, many children find their lives are more comfortable at the Circle than they would have been otherwise. Despite its many flaws."

"Materially comfortable or in some other way?"

"Materially, and - well, there's a sort of person who likes being governed by clear rules, however annoying it can be to the rest of us."

"How old are children when they're found? How do they avoid missing any?"