"Is there a specific process these stubborn individuals have to work at for a very long time to do it, or do you just have to stubbornly figure it out?"

"I'm not entirely sure, never having done it myself. The relatively few books written by Fates on the subject seem to indicate the latter."

"What joy. Do you have a book in your neat library with all the twenty-five thousand little words? Or, books, I guess?

"Definitely plural. No, I have a bunch of overviews of my favorite subjects, not a comprehensive listing."

"D'you know where I could find one?"

"I'm fairly sure it doesn't exist. Magical intellectual property law can be a bit... Fierce."

"...what, seriously? How do people even do magic, then?"

"It mostly limits the spreading. Printing proprietary processes or teaching them to others especially for money. It's not quite so draconian as to come after you if you happen to come up with something near-identical on your own, or to try and enforce secrecy on centuries-old techniques. I think it's a cultural leftover from times when Fair Folk did ninety percent of all magical innovation."

"Hmm... Okay that's kinda annoying. I wanna read lots of books on magic and figure it all out."

"Go to the vaunted Suvak Academy, enroll in some classes, they're supposedly one of the best in the world."

"Hmm. Sounds more time-consuming than merely reading a book but okay, I suppose."

"I'll let you read my legacy texts and run through a couple examples to get you on the right track if you like, anyway."

"Thanks! I'd love that."

"...After docking, that is, the harbormasters are starting to give me the stink-eye for chatting already."

He shifts his lips away, eyes crinkling with amusement.

Well, that's a thing.

He guides the ship into a berth under the uniformed woman's guidance without further comment.

"Now for customs to come through and decide how much metaphorical blood the taxman wants today."

Sadde shrugs, mouthlessly.

The customs inspection is mercifully brief. They charge Nick a 1960 Kava docking fee and 2412.47 Kava import tax.

"Not terrible, for a major hub."

He shifts his lips back. "Didn't you say fifteen Kava bought you a meal?"

"Yes. Ships are expensive. Shipyards are expensive. Dockyards and harbormasters are expensive. Taxes are inevitable."

"I wasn't imagining it to be quite this expensive, but alright, I guess. Hope I've made you significantly richer than that."

"Not ridiculously so, but definitely up there. Time for your promised demonstration? I'll make a little toy that hovers and follows whatever activated it, that's probably a good balance between relatively quick and showing a lot of the concepts."

"Yes, please!"

He brings the necessary materials out of the workshop (or asks them to be made) and into the high-stacked cargo bay rather than invite Sadde in.

He states what each step is supposed to do and how it fits into the whole thing's (relatively simple) architecture. He's definitely not slowing down for the beginner though, that's probably not a setting he even has.

It involves arranging things in particular ways, mixing things, lighting one thing on fire, and at one point a minute of chanting. The process does make sense... Sort of... Even if the individual steps are almost arbitrary.

"Are all of your magical effects enchanted objects like that?" he asks while he watches the process.