"I would have to do each person more-or-less individually and refresh it personally every couple of weeks. And I actually just can't, I wouldn't have the energy for all of them. Maybe it's doable over a wide area with some big elaborate ritual, but that wouldn't be total mind control, probably just inspiring loyalty and community-mindedness and cooperation."

"Seems like it would have knock-on effects."

"It might. And patching those with more mind control would probably not be a great plan. And eventually I'd want to transition to a mind-control-free society, so it would need to be gracefully removable. If I ever did it I'd do it much more carefully than 'Oh I think these traits would be good in a population.' "

"Yeah, definitely."

"Speaking of mind control, I really should talk to Kanimir about the duration of my stay if nothing else. Do you know if he's up yet or the best way to talk to him without interrupting anything important?"

"He usually gets up at around sunset, he's okay to bother if he's just sitting in the library reading and if he's not he probably isn't."

"OK, thanks, I'll check if he's there." Library?

Yep.

"Hi. I realize I asked for one night's hospitality and then after that night I spent all day reading Wikipedia and now it's night again. And I should probably check whether or not you are actually willing to host an interplanar vagrant medium-long term and if not figure out other accommodations. I'd also like to know if you've heard back from the angel?"

"Ah--yes, you have a fascinating magic system and I have abundant resources with which to house people with human needs. You're quite welcome to stay arbitrarily long. The angel did reply, she's interested in coming and meeting you."

"Delightful. I would be happy to continue trading magical knowledge with you, if you have the means to acquire lots of inks - I think of them as mostly pretty expensive but it's possible they are less so now - I can try diagramming some spells for you and we can see if you pick them up. And you mentioned there were books I could learn your magic from?"

"Yes, I can show you where. What kinds of inks?"

"The ones I know the precise composition of use powdered gold and silver for the pigments. And one uses pearls I think, but I don't have many spells that use that and they're all advanced. Other than that it's a dark red and a light blue and an orange and a violet. I am pretty sure any inks of those colors will do, but the color has to be pretty close, it can't be off by too much. I can probably look at a computer and get you hex codes or something. Paints might work too."

"Specific colors shouldn't be a problem. Gold and silver are non-trivial but well within my means. Pearl falls into either the former or latter category depending on if there are any requirements as to what kind of pearl."

"Well before this instant I did not know that there was such a thing as kinds of pearls, so maybe get some of the former and if everything else is working I can test it out?"

"There are tiny round pearls and there are large irregularly-shaped ones."

"If they are made of the same stuff they are probably interchangeable as far as inks are concerned. Some spells require you to consume or destroy materials as part of their casting, I think those would actually care which kind of pearl."

"Why?"

"Not particularly well-understood. A lot of material components are symbolic, but why the symbolism of swallowing pearl dust and a live carp cares whether the dust came from one or many pearls is a mystery. Actually, it's possible in that particular case it doesn't, everyone experimenting on a more pleasant and convenient identify spell seems to fixate on the live carp."

"Reasonable priorities."

"Conspiracy theorists - by which I mean one conspiracy theorist with whom I was personally acquainted - claim that dragons are actually incredibly intelligent beings secretly guiding the path of mortal civilization, rather than being giant fire-breathing magpies as common wisdom suggests. His evidence for this is that dragons often destroy libraries to hinder technological progress and our understanding of magic. This does happen, but I think it's because major libraries tend to be in prosperous cities. All of which I say to explain why there's a lot of magical theory we don't understand and a lot of good things within our reach that we haven't accomplished."

"That sounds...frustrating."

"Very. I'm going to fix it."

"Good."

"Kendra seemed to think I was being overly ambitious when I said I would take over the world. You are either humoring me or find it much more plausible than most would."