He laughs. "Even so!"

Smile.

"Well, thank you. It's worth something."

Nod.

She considers him. She's tempted to ask him why did you do it, but then, she already knows the answer, doesn't she. Her faithful blanket can be pulled a little closer around her shoulders, to help with the shivering.

"S-so," she says, "you're approximately the only person I can actually talk to about magic projects, want to hear about them?"

"Sure."

"Did you actually figure out why I put magic on all of the water sources of the city?" she wonders, looking faintly smug.

"I'm sure you're about to tell me."

"I definitely am!" Yes, this was a good topic choice, she is much more comfortable talking about this. "So I'm sure you're vampirically immune to diseases because of course you are, but you have to have witnessed some outbreaks of them over the years. You know cholera?"

"Yes...?"

"Turns out, it spreads through water sources. Specifically, uh, feces in drinking water. Which is gross and it's that kind of thing that makes cities terrible, but I digress. I couldn't go so far to fix it at the source, but I could just make the pumps and wells that people get their water from clean it for them."

"Oh, clever!"

"Yes, I thought so!" she agrees. "Granted, I can't prove my findings without going, 'Magic is real and I'm a witch,' and I can't exactly travel around the world bopping every water source on the nose like a disobedient pet. It's a good first step, though. I told my father of my findings, and he'll believe me and hopefully be able to figure out a way to get someone to prove them without magic."

Snort.

"And my current project is trying to figure out if I can magically create vaccines that could be non-magically replicated. I think it's possible. I'd need to isolate whatever disease I'm trying to turn into a vaccine, drain its lifeforce, and then stop it from recovering so it's permanently weakened. The tricky part is making it so that when it propagates, the strain's also just as weak. Then I take the whole thing and give it to someone else to take credit for, because such is my lot in life."

"Oh, very clever. Careful though," he says. "Draining lifeforce is a tricky business. It's hard to avoid killing things that way until you've got practice, and if you drain something's whole life away and add it to yours, well, too much of that and you end up turning yourself into a vampire."

She considers, and nods very seriously.

"I wasn't planning to add it to mine, that sounds, uh. Gross. How much is too much?"

"When there's more death in you than life, you turn. And if any of it wasn't human, you'll have a bad time. There haven't been any in a while, but if you've heard old stories about horible demon creatures with six eyes and ninety teeth, those were vampires who ate animals. It messes up your shifting so you can't stay the right shape."

She makes a face.

"Charming. Well, thank you for the warning."

... Then she looks at him thoughtfully. "Do you have to add the lifeforce you manipulate to your own?"

"Who, me? Well, if I'm eating it, yes."

"So I probably couldn't wheedle a lifeforce draining expert into helping me with my project. Six eyes and ninety teeth sound like unpleasant things to have."

"It's possible to fix it eventually, but it's something I'd rather avoid, yeah."

"So I'm going to need to figure out a place to put it. If I accidentally add something to my own lifeforce, can I remove it later? ... It sounds really gross to have a dead thing just. Attached to me. Until the end of time."

"You sort of - digest it, over time - the trouble comes if you're taking in so much so fast that it overwhelms you."

Yep, that sure is a face she's making.

"No offense? But ew. I'd take it to stop measles, but ew."

Giggle.