It soars off to the side. He looks delighted. "Does the pain also scale up with the difficulty of the working?"

"Yes. It also depends in kind with what magic you're using--Effort always feels like muscle ache, and Conquest always feels like an impact in your bones, but for some reason Sympathy feels like a wide variety of things depending on what exactly you're doing."

"And if I practice this for a few hours a day for a few decades, you think I'd be able to make it work against Angband? In fifty years? A hundred?"

"I don't know. It depends on how strong Angband is, and I don't know that. To be sure, you could take down a normal stone wall within a few decades, but..." she spreads her hands helplessly. "I have no idea what this Enemy has done to the place."

"I don't know if we have two hundred years. If I practice twice as often, do I improve twice as quickly?"

"Ah--yes, that's generally how practice works. What kind of things does he usually deploy? I may be useful as a direct asset before I have a serious impact as a teacher."

"Not for, for example, swordfighting, there's only so much time you can put in in a day. All right. I can put some people on this full-time - dozens, if necessary - can you support another's efforts in that way?"

"Well, I mean, with most people there's a limit to how much it's a good idea to practice, since you don't want to burn yourself out, but it doesn't have a point of diminishing returns except psychologically. I'm not sure what you mean by that latter part."

"If I train a hundred people in this art, and we all try to knock down Angband, is that easier?"

"Oh. Yes. There might normally be some coordination issues with that, but I imagine the ability to share thoughts would cut down on that."

"We've been training together for centuries, too. Thank you. I need to get some messages off about this immediately. Is there anything you need from us?"

"Can you tell me if the Enemy has any resources or troops in the area? If I test myself against something, and you know how strong it is in comparison with other resources he has, and I observe how fast you progress, I might be able to give estimates for when you'll be able to do more things."

"That's wise, but it's been years since we've seen them. He tends to test our strength once a decade, with orcs or greater monsters, and pull them back once we react. You're always welcome to go slay spiders."

"Spiders?"

"There is a forest full of them. We believe them to be descended from an old ally of the Enemy's, and they are very persistent, so we mostly try not to travel through that forest, or to travel armed."

"How big are these spiders?"

"Six to ten feet, at the last I know. If someone recently tried clearing the forest again they may be a little smaller, it seems to take them a few years to reach full size."

"Huh. Alright, I'll see what I can see. Which direction is that forest?"

"Due east. I can send you a horse and escort."

"It would probably be safer and faster just to fly out of reach."

"Ah, yes. Enjoy the trip, then. The kingdom between here and there is my brothers'. If you get there ahead of my message, they'll likely be alarmed; you can stay the night here and leave in the morning, or expect to explain yourself to them."

"I suppose there's no particular hurry if this war is being fought on a scale of decades and centuries," she concedes. "I'll stay the night."

"The war has so far lasted more than four hundred fifty years. Is this unusual for wars in your land?"

"Very. It's considered exceptional for a war to last much more than a decade."

"Well, we tried to end it that quickly. It didn't work."