And out of the corner of her eye, she sees... something. A wire-thin line of darkness in the middle of her study's floor.

She nearly doesn't notice it at first, lost in her thoughts as she is. She soon notices it out of the corner of her eye, however, and focuses upon it. She returns the picture to her desk carefully, adjusting it slightly before she releases it, and then approaches the slit of blackness, treading carefully.

The line stands up from her study's floor, black and thinner than hair.

Upon closer inspection, the line seems to be supporting some sort of spiked orb. It hangs halfway up the right-hand side, supported by a thumb-width cylinder.

And of course she steps around it to the right to take a closer look. Her brow furrows with caution.

As she steps cautiously around to its right, the line widens into a door of dark mahogany. Black iron rose-vines dig into its surface, intertwining and overlapping each other: on its right side, they twist together, thorns interlocking into a fist-sized orb of spikes.

This might well be the world's most inconvenient doorknob. 

Ashilynn stands before the bizarre door for a long moment, brow twisting as she studies it, its composition...and, with more scrutiny, the fact that it seems to be a door standing literally in thin air, with no support.

She gathers her staff from where it leans next to her desk and holds it in her left hand. Her right hand extends toward the doorknob, though she stands safely about a foot away, and she extends some mana to grasp the handle and open it, twisting her hand in a miming of the motion as she does..

The door opens onto a room that should not be there. 

A black iron chandelier hangs from the ceiling, capturing a dozen burning roses in cages of thorns. Their unsteady blue light casts odd, flickering shadows that twist and turn. 

A woman sits beneath this chandelier, a rose-vine pen digging thorns into her hand as she writes out contracts in suspiciously-colored ink. Her chair rises as a solid block of gnarled wood, as if someone had taken a lightning-struck hawthorn tree and carved out its heart for a throne. Across from her, a vaguely-seatlike crystal formation juts from among the floorboards. Someone has put a pair of red cushions on it. 

Abstract stained-glass murals enclose the room: as the blue light of the chandelier flickers, they seem to slowly shift, like a heartbeat or a breath.

Outside the door, Ashilynn peers into the strange room, unsettled by its sudden appearance, though curiosity tugs in her chest. Regardless, she remains outside the door, and lowers her hand to her side.

She raises her voice, speaking firmly and clearly. "Hello? Who is there?"

The woman at the desk looks up at Ashilynn. Her face is young, despite her silver hair. A quartz pendant dangles from her neck.  

"Sorry, what?" 

Ashilynn pauses, gasping lightly as she spots the face of the woman at the desk. She seems confused for a brief instant, but it fades swiftly.

"Forgive me for interrupting you." She manages a polite smile, despite being unnerved. "A door to this room has suddenly appeared in my home, and it's...alarming, to say the least. Can you explain this to me?"

The woman frowns. 

"That's... Definitely not supposed to happen. Let me see if I can raise Positioning, one moment..." 

She holds up a hand, and seems to concentrate. 

"Please, if you could explain it..." Ashilynn advances a few steps forward, and crosses the threshold of the door. "I'd like to understand it."

The woman nods. "One moment, I'm on hold..." 

She frowns suddenly. 

"... Great. There's being some instabilities in the Treadstone Plains, everyone is grounded in a Local Reality until the problem can be fixed. It looks like my door might be in the middle of your study for a while." 

She sighs, and leans back into her chair, one hand on her face. "Please, take a seat. This could take some time to explain." 

Ashilynn glances back over her shoulder into her study, then back to the woman. "I have plenty of time to listen."

She doesn't take her hand off her staff as she approaches, but she carefully takes a seat in the crystal chair in front of the woman, settling onto the red cushion.

"So, please, tell me what this is. It's very unusual."

The woman spreads her hands, the broad gesture encompassing the whole room. 

"Welcome to the OTC - that is, the Oifeili Trade Consortium. We are a multiversal corporation, bringing you the finest goods anywhere. And when we say anywhere, we do mean anywhere." 

She smiles crookedly. "At least, that's the official line. But with Positioning down, I'm limited to what we have in stock at the moment. Not that I expect you to want to buy anything: you probably just want me gone."

Ashilynn shakes her head. "No, actually...you are hardly intruding at the moment. The door is nowhere obstructive."

She leans her staff down onto the floor carefully, then clasps her hands in her lap. "I have never heard of the Oifeili Trade Consortium. Where does it originate?"

"Oifeili." 

She smiles slightly. 

"Yes, that's the name of a universe. And no, I don't know much about it: I'm not Chronology. Exploration, actually. My job for the Consortium is finding new and interesting worlds for us to expand our operations into." 

Whatever understanding Ashilynn seemed to have vanishes from her face as the woman speaks. She straightens up in her chair, brow furrowed. "The name of a universe? What can you possibly mean?"

"A world. A different world from yours, with different people, magic, technology, language, culture, laws of physics..." 

She makes a rolling motion with one hand as she trails off.

Ashilynn remains silent for a few moments, thinking. She eventually looks up at the woman, wringing her hands. "Are you typically so abrupt about these sorts of revelations?"

"Well, to me it's..." 

She checks her desk clock. 

"Just another Friday. Sorry, I honestly wasn't really expecting to have this conversation right now." 

Ashilynn nods hesitantly. "It's quite alright...you hardly expected this either, did you? " She smiles, though she still seems bewildered. "Perhaps you can tell me about yourself, and this trade consortium. What is your name?"

"I'm Evangeline. Eva for short. I've been working for OTC for... Well. It rather depends on how you reckon it. At least two hundred years, relative to my home universe."

Ashilynn smiles. "I see...a fair amount of time, then. It's lovely to meet you, Eva. I am Lord Iron Hand Ashilynn, of House Senn'raethi."

Eva raises an eyebrow. "It sounds like I've chanced upon the nobility, then. Is there anything I can do for you, Lord Iron Hand?" 

"At the moment, there are two things that I'm primarily interested in." Ashilynn cants her head inquisitively. "The first is the matter of your origin from another world. Forgive me if it is somewhat difficult to take you at your word in this regard. Can you provide me with any evidence to conclusively demonstrate this?"

Eva taps her chin. "Give me just a moment." 

She shuffles a few papers on her desk, revealing a large scroll that had been buried under a drift of contracts. Unfurling it, she examines the shifting green-and-gold letters on its surface.

"Let me see... I've still got my local store inventory, and my private archives are still accessible. Minting services are still operating as well. So I can provide obviously strange magic and technology, information from other universes, and, if you would care to, some of my own memories."

She looks up at Ashilynn. "Do you think that would be enough?" 

"I'd love to see your stock, and anything relevant that you may have in your archives." Ashilynn smiles warmly. "The offer to show me your memories is gracious, but I'm afraid I must decline."

"Alright. So we don't waste time on unimpressive evidence, can you tell me a little of what magic and technology on your world are like?"

"Magic and technology..." Ashilynn pauses for a moment, then smiles. "It is difficult to know what point of reference you come from, but most magic that we know was created by gods, very far in the past. The formulae of more complicated spellwork are still the topic of analysis and debate, though we understand how to use them perfectly well. We simply do not know how they work, for the most part."

She squeezes her hands in her lap. "We have made great strides in the application of those formulae, however, in the use of runes...though we are somewhat limited by the stability of larger mechanisms. Complicated machines are far more susceptible to demonic corruption. Regardless, boltshard is quite prevalent these days, and I have high hopes for carmot rust, once we refine the process of creating it."

"Hmm. Would you care to elaborate a little on Boltshard and Carmot Rust? What materials do you use in construction? Wood, stone, metal?"

"Boltshard is a magical fuel source...more powerful than wood or coal burning furnaces. It gives us a quantifiable source of mana that we can use for machinery. We produce it in powder or crystal forms."

"Carmot rust is a more experimental substance that we are currently developing, and I cannot tell you much more than that." Ashilynn offers an apologetic smile. "We often use iron and brass in our machinery, and stone with steel supports for our developed city buildings. Wood is generally cheaper to work with, still, so it sees use here and there."

"Wait. One moment. Complicated machines are more vulnerable to demonic corruption? Only magical ones, or totally mundane as well? What happens?"

"Specifically magical machinery...demonic energy builds up in the magical circuits and can cause it to break down and malfunction. It is typically not a problem with more simple machines, such as boltshard guns, but in artificial spirits it can become especially dangerous. There are hate demons called gremlins that take control of mechanical magic such as that." 

Eva blinks. 

"Artificial spirits — Shit, I have Sundowners in stock — if it can't think, it can't be possessed?"

Ashilynn tilts her head. "Why would that make a difference?"

Eva's eyes get very wide. "Lady's shadow — anything too complex?"

"It is simply the fact that it is complicated magic, yes. It is not the presence of a...mind that makes it susceptible." She pauses for a moment, peering at Eva. "Demonic energy is simply chaotic magic. It is magic that has become unstable. Can you see why a complex system might be more vulnerable to corruption such as that?"

"Sorry emergency not listening —"

Eva tears at the front panel of her desk, and a long, flat piece of wood goes flying across the room: she yanks, and a small panel covered with very final-looking buttons slides out. She slams her fist into the third button from the left, and a distant THOOM rattles the floor.

Ashilynn's eyes widen and she immediately reaches down for the staff she had set down, rising up to her feet and staring at Eva. "What are you doing?" she asks frantically.

Eva makes a waving motion with one hand as she pulls a knife of black glass from another hidden chamber in the desk. "Destroying everything that could be demon-infested. Shoo, out the door, this entire subspace could be possessed if it's just a complexity threshold!" 

Ashilynn blinks at Eva, then bursts out into melodic laughter. "Oh, precious girl!" She takes a seat back down in the chair, shaking her head. "It isn't something that just happens, it's a process! And it does not stop us from creating complicated machines of our own!"

Eva crosses to the door in three quick strides, and throws it open. She points with the dagger. "Don't care, out. Unless you would like to go with the pocket dimension when I dismiss it?" 

Ashilynn sighs and stands to her feet. "Do you mean to say that you do not trust my knowledge of my own world's physics?"

"I will not assume we know how your world's physics interact with the physics of hundreds of different complex items built in other universes. Out."

Ashilynn seems to take this as a reasonable answer, and calmly strides over toward the door. She crosses the threshold and turns to face the door again, gazing at Eva.

Eva steps out, closing the door behind her. She presses her palm against it, and whispers something. 

The door neatly and quietly implodes.

"It still seems as though it's an excessive measure. I would be less concerned with demonic possession and more concerned with some of your objects behaving differently here." Ashilynn rests the base of her staff on the floor as she looks at Eva. "There is no nearby localized incursion of Hell, and this place is highly secure against it regardless."

Eva shakes her head. 

"The capabilities of any individual OTC office are often enough to cause localized apocalypse. Even the tiniest chance of subversion is to be strictly avoided, by company regulations. To be frank, I was pushing it even by waiting for you." 

"...I cannot say I understand, but I will trust that you are more knowledgeable of this particular topic." Ashilynn passes to the large floor-to-ceiling window and opens the door out to her balcony, glancing over her shoulder at Eva again. "Would you like to sit outside?"

Eva smiles. "I'm fine with anywhere comfortable. Sorry if I seemed a bit panicky, but XK-class events aren't anything to mess around with."

"Have you ever experienced anything such as that?" Ashilynn steps outside. It's mid-afternoon at the moment, and there's a pleasant breeze blowing over the balcony, with hills visible beyond. The elven matriarch approaches a wooden chair lined with cushions and takes a seat in it, looking to Eva. "What would such an event entail?"

Eva takes the seat across from Ashilynn. 

"Destruction or hostile, negative transformation of the entire universe. Either of which is in a fashion beyond the corporation's ability to reverse. And yes, I've seen it happen. Once."

"You truly do deal with scales larger than I have ever had to consider." Ashilynn smiles. "I imagine that we are safe for the moment, however."

"Yes, now that everything more complex than a steam engine has been permanently decommissioned. Not a huge issue: matter is cheap." 

Ashilynn peers at Eva curiously. "Perhaps you can explain that to me. I can't imagine how it must be so cheap."

Eva holds out her cupped hands, and a fist-sized gold sphere drops into her palms. 

"I repeat: matter is cheap." 

She grins.

Ashilynn cants her head as she peers at the sphere. "...But, why?" She looks back up at Eva, a curious smile on her lips. "You cannot mean to say that there is no method to it. There is always some process. What can you create? How do you do it? Is it only elements, or can you create more complicated substances?"

"To be frank, I just transported an existing gold sphere I had on hand. A little piece of stage magic for effect. But for some people in the OTC? It really is as simple as that. They can make things just by wishing them into existence."

Eva sets the sphere down with a heavy thunk. "As for how that works, I don't know: they come from worlds with much different physics than yours or mine." 

Ashilynn nods. "Then...is it simply that you have so much of it that it does not matter to lose some comparatively small amount such as that?"

"Yes. Practically anything physical is replaceable by the OTC with enough effort: that's why we trade using rather more abstract currencies." 

"I see." Ashilynn smiles, leaning forward. "What sorts of currencies do you use on an interuniversal level, then?"

"We have more than a few. Takkarash, Ka, Udi, Dyne, Buddhitanka, Izikiel, Chron, Cernnous, and of course our own Oifilei Trade Currency. The first seven incarnate pain, lifespan, desires, fatigue, knowledge, victories, and vital time: the last two are special cases." 

"Then I suppose it is...somewhat more abstract? Or..." Ashilynn trails off, then briskly shakes her head. "No, you must have mechanisms by which you make it tangible."

"Why yes. I'm actually wearing one right now." 

She tugs at her collar, and pulls out a fine black chain, studded with tiny blossoms and stubby thorns. 

"This is a Takkarash minting kit: it inflicts pain on the user, and generates physical Takkarash coins in the process. Would you like to try it?"

"...Perhaps one other than pain?" Ashilynn gives another smile, though there is seemingly a more weary quality to it now.

"Which would you prefer?"

"Desires or knowledge, perhaps."

"What desire or knowledge would you like to offer up?"

"Can you explain how this process works before I select this?"

"Basically, you pay for the coin with the desire, knowledge, etc. Not all are worth the same, of course. If you want a gentle one, Dyne is probably the nicest coin for beginners. We could mint a tenth of a Dyne, and you'd feel it, but it wouldn't make you exhausted."

"What is the conversion rate, if I may ask?"

"Between what and what? I can't very well give you the entire table of conversions off the top of my head."

"For Dyne."

"One Dyne is... A very good night's sleep. Ten OTC standard hours worth of mental and physical energy."

"Then, yes, I would like to mint one tenth of a Dyne."

Eva seems to concentrate... And then a thumb-sized silver sphere appears in the air by Ashilynn's head, humming a high C. It hovers unsteadily. 

Ashilynn looks up to the sphere curiously. "What do I do now?"

Eve smiles. "That was it. The humming silver sphere is a one-tenth Dyne. Don't touch it with bare skin, it'll give you a bit of a shock."

"Oh, how curious!" Rather than taking it physically, Ashilynn draws the little sphere toward her using her magic, examining it with fascination. "To touch it would redeem it again, I imagine?" Though it isn't visible outwardly, Ashilynn focuses a different sort of gaze on the object, examining its mana and magical structure, if it has any.  

"Actually, you can just direct your will at it in order to redeem it: touching it is just painful. Dyne tend to collect static electricity." 

Beneath Ashilynn's magical senses, the Dyne looks almost like pure mana. 

"Ah, yes, that makes sense...though I imagine my magic resistance would protect me from the active aer, if I handled it carefully." Ashilynn looks to Eva with a curiously analytical expression on her face. "What are its components? How does the spell work? Is there a formula you are drawing from? I did not get a good look at you as you were casting it...did you create it from the surrounding ether? Or did you use your own od?"

As she speaks, an excited smile grows on her face, and she stands briskly to her feet. "I have never seen a spell like this before, and it hardly seems as though you expended much od or mana to cast it, but you have managed to make a physical object that can grant someone the equivalent of an hour's sleep! And yet it is almost fully formed from mana, not from matter! And you have certainly implied that you can make it in far larger quantities than this, and I can only imagine that you can do so with relative ease as well, given that you operate a business upon this model...though you have not specified the limits yet of how much you can mint in one sitting...but I absolutely must see the process!"

Ashilynn claps her hands together, by this point barely able to stand still for all her excitement, and an all-consuming grin on her face. "You need to do that again. I would like to mint another tenth of a dyne, and I would like to watch you as you make it."

"I'd like to note that the energy isn't created from nowhere: that tenth of a Dyne is an hour of your sleep, and if you get me to make more than a few you're definitely going to start feeling it. But if you'd like me to make another, I can oblige." 

She does the thing again. It looks surprisingly natural: the extracted energy-property almost condenses into another tenth-Dyne of its own accord. 

"OTC has spent a very large amount of time refining the minting magic, and I honestly have no idea how it works: the OTC is complex and powerful enough to make many gods look like ants." 

"But surely some energy must be expended in the conversion process..." Ashilynn trails off as she watches the next tenth-Dyne appear, before she looks to Eva, dumbstruck. "This is...absolutely incredible. This is revolutionary!"

"There is some loss: You're actually expending about an extra minute on each tenth of a dyne. Thirty-six seconds of that is the OTC's minting fee - we take one percent to cover cost of time and maintenance on the system." 

"But you cannot mean to say that fatigue itself fuels this process. There must be some mana that is involved."

Eva shakes her head. "If mana gets involved in the process at all here, it's because that's how your world functions. This works even in worlds with no conception whatsoever of magic."

Ashilynn pauses. Her brow raises a touch. "In worlds without magic? What..." She trails off, furrowing her brow, then covers her mouth. "...I see. Then...perhaps it is silly of me to try to quantify it in terms of what I know."

"In some worlds they make distinctions between magic and physics. In some worlds, they actually do operate differently. In some worlds one or the other is absent, though it's sometimes difficult to define what's physics and what's magic. In general, OTC tends to define physics that responds to the will of individuals as 'magical.' "

"I would call magic simply another aspect of physics...at least here." Ashilynn takes a deep breath. "But I think this is beyond my knowledge to comprehend, at the moment."

She straightens up, having calmed significantly now, and peers at Eva. "You mentioned that you have a stock. Does this mean that you both sell and buy?"

"We do! Obviously we trade in any of the currencies I mentioned, but we also buy interesting things from any world - particularly things that are locally common but multiversally rare. That usually means manufactured goods, though there are exceptions."

"For the sake of my curiosity...do you buy magical energy?"

"We do, it's one of our nonstandard currencies - not all worlds accept it, because not all of them have an analogy to mana."

"I'd like to offer some of my own mana or od for sale, then. And I should like to see your stock."

"Even with everything over TL3 converted to a cloud of very hot debris, it'd still help if you could give me a general category for what you'd want."

"I am most interested in whatever stock you may have that is magical or technological in nature. I cannot say so specifically what I'd like, given I hardly know what you may have to offer...but I am certain we can find something." 

"Can you at least give me a general function you want? Weapon? Furniture? Clothing? Housepet?" 

Eva half-smiles. 

"Recreation, then."

"Alright, let's see what we have in that department... Yes, there's plenty left."

She frowns, twisting around in her seat as she looks around for a convenient surface. 

"... Would you happen to have somewhere I can set things down? It'll be more convenient if I don't have to continually appear and disappear my stock." 

"Ah, yes, of course." Ashilynn stands up to her feet again. "Would the desk inside be sufficient?"

"Mmmm... For most things, yes, but I suspect you'll want a pretty full accounting of the catalog. We should probably pick a larger area just in case."

Ashilynn contemplates for a moment, rubbing her chin. "...Let's head properly inside, then. I have a laboratory better suited for these things." She smiles to Eva. "It is at the top of house. Shall we go?"

Eva grins. "Certainly: lead the way!"

Ashilynn turns around and leads Eva off the terrace. She pauses at her desk, collecting a keyring, and then exits the study and takes a right. She is light on her feet as she walks, her feet barely making a sound on the floor's stone tiles. The hall is open to the air, and to the left, visible through the pillars and arches, is an atrium courtyard, a level below the walkway. To the right, from time to time, Eva notices magical lamps--currently dark, but each with a glowing crystal screwed into a socket at its base.

The entirety of the house seems networked with very organized, very rigid magic. Apart from the ambient mana, all the magical activity follows very strict flows and currents, creating complex, purposeful circuitry.

It isn't long before Ashilynn ducks off to the right again, leading Eva through a shorter hall, lit from an ornate stained glass window at its end, and with more (active) crystal lanterns secured high on the walls. At the end of the hall, to the left, there is a spiral staircase that gradually climbs up. Ample windows around its outside keep it lit, though it takes a short while for them to ascend.

They reach the top within a few minutes of climbing. At the landing there is a steel door with three locks. Beyond it, Eva's magical senses are abruptly blocked. Ashilynn sifts through each key individually on the ring, without any fuss to her actions, and selects one. "This is my laboratory. I typically use it for isolated magical experiments, so I imagine it will be sufficient for whatever you may have in mind."

Eva nods, absentmindedly pinging the door with some of her more exotic senses. 

"Hmm. That's remarkably opaque. Perception ward? True impermeability? It's rare that I find something that blocks so much..."

"It is insulated against magical interference. It is more for the sake of a controlled testing environment than anything else, but it does prevent outside magic from penetrating inside...and also prevents anything inside from escaping, which is arguably more useful."

Ashilynn slides the key into one of the locks and turns it. A clunk sounds from inside the door as something mechanically retracts. She removes the key, selects another, then unlocks the second lock to similar effect. Finally, after the third key turns in its lock, she takes the handle and pulls the door open.

Eva watches the security procedures with a raised eyebrow. 

"How thorough of you." 

Ashilynn smirks faintly, and her eyes flit to Eva. "It is better to be safe, isn't it?"

The door swings open, a number of large holes inside it where metal bolts have retracted into it...and apparently some where pistons have pulled away from the door and into the wall. Very thoroughly secured. The steel door also seems to be composed of several layers of metal, with some sheets held in place between them, apparently made from zigzagging threads of copper and iron formed into a tight weave. As the door opens, a gap forms in the wall blocking Eva's magical senses, and she can suddenly perceive the interior just as well.

Once Eva has stepped inside, Ashilynn closes the door again, and several of the pistons snap back into place to bolt it again with a loud clunk. She turns the keys in the locks again, then proceeds to a large, mostly empty table at one end of the circular room. The ceiling forms up into a dome above, made of stone and reinforced with steel struts.

She turns to Eva and smiles. "Shall we start, then?"

"Certainly." 

She hums to herself, passes a hand over the table, and objects appear. 

A pair of smooth grey rocks. Crystals in individual cases, with intriguing labels: "Forgotten Song", "Mercury Reaches", "Endless Pit", "House of Cards", "Triumph". A perfect cube of black metal. A collection of little tins and pots. An indistinct ball of pale green light. A tesselated globe the size of a coconut. A curled strip of stiff white paper. A pair of finely-stitched leather boots, and a fingerless pair of leather gloves. A cloth bag that clicks when it hits the table. Silver and gold amulets, and a time-worn piece of bone with a hole through it. A gown of shimmering, hazy fabric. An insistently happy ball of fuzz in a wire cage. A bowl full of a fine red powder. The misshapen skull of a crocodilian beast, almost as tall as Eva herself. (That one goes on the floor next to the table.) A thick cloak of fine red cloth, draped over one horn of the skull.

Eva makes a little 'tsk' sound, and hangs up the translucent gown over the other horn: then she's back to the table again. 

A silvery pin with sixty little stars on it. A brass choker that clunks heavily onto the table. A gold rod a half-foot long, and a tube of translucent material filled with a greenish liquid. A leaf. (Maple? Oak?) A glass jar filled with jellied ears: they look distressingly human, but on closer inspection have an upwards point. Another pair of shoes, made of what looks like thick fabric and a white, rubbery material. A long-handled... bone? Spoon? With... little protruding fingers on the end? 

Eva stretches, surveying the now rather cluttered desk. 

"Should I keep going?" 

"I think that this is plenty for now." Ashilynn's eyes seem drawn to the gown now draped over one horn of the skull. She approaches it and peers down at it. "Can you tell me more about this?"

Eva smiles. "The fabric is Parabola-linen — woven dreams. Gorgeous, isn't it? It doesn't do anything, but it certainly leaves an impression."

Ashilynn reaches down and trails her hand over the cloth to get a feel for its texture. "Yes...it certainly does. It's beautiful."

The dress shimmers as her hands brush across it, suggesting scenes from other places, other times. It has a deep gold color to it, like the memory of sunshine. 

Ashilynn smiles as she watches the cloth change form at her touch. "I do like it quite a lot...how much is it? How could I possibly purchase it?"

"Let me see..."

Eva holds a hand up to her head, then frowns. 

"Oh, of course I can't access central pricing at the moment. Bear with me..." 

She produces an abacus out of the air, muttering to herself as her fingers flick over the beads. 

"Five hundred Udi, a hundred BT, maybe as much as half a Chron and a tenth of an Izikiel... Current exchange rates are..." 

She looks up. "Let's call it two hundred and fifty OTC. As for the payment — I did explain our currencies to you, right? So this would come to... About fourteen years of lifespan, four seconds of vital time, three satisfying victories over nemeses, three hundred and twenty interesting experiences, or an amount of pain roughly equal to being on fire for three minutes. I'm not even going to include the Udi option — the exchange rate is terrible at the moment."

"I see." Ashilynn nods slightly, then looks up at Eva. "Before I make this purchase, I would like to sell some items to you. I have a piece of weapons technology that I could share with you, and perhaps some raw materials. Perhaps we could make an appraisal of that, and of the worth of my od, and from there we can negotiate?"

"What is od, exactly?"

Ashilynn peers at Eva for a brief moment with confusion, before it seems to click for her that she is speaking to a foreigner. She smiles. "Ah, od...yes. Od is the energy within a person's odic field. The mana of their soul, to put it in terms you may understand more clearly. It is the magical component of one's physiology, tied to their health and being. It is also the mana that everyone uses for spellcasting, in some form or another."

"That makes some sense. How does one replenish Od once it is spent? Can one? Does one spend it in the first place?"

"Under healthy circumstances, one's odic field simply replenishes itself from the surrounding aether." Ashilynn clasps her hands before her. "It is accurate to say it is spent for most intents and purposes. Witches and shaman wield their od directly when spellcasting, projecting it from their body and shaping it to accomplish what they wish. But, for mages," she places her hand on her collar, "it is more accurate to say that we create packets with strands of our odic field, allowing us to use the aether itself as fuel for our spells. It is a skill acquired through a great deal of training and knowledge."

Eva raises an eyebrow. "...Packets? How exactly does that work? I'm not sure I'm following."

"There is mana everywhere in the world, which is called aether. One who is skilled enough can project their odic field into the surrounding aether and manipulate it, rather than simply shaping their own od. Imagine it as though you were blowing a bubble: your od surrounds the aether in the same way that the soap would surround the air. Once it is wrapped up properly like that, you may use it for your own spellwork."

Ashilynn peers at Eva. "It is all mana, the question is simply what it is doing and which systems it is a part of. When it is part of you, it is your od. When it is in the surrounding world, it is aether. Does that make it clearer?"

"Okay, so Aether is ambient mana, Od is personal mana, and when you spend Od the Aether flows into you to replenish your Od?"

"Your odic field opens up to allow aether into it, yes. The process takes some time."

"I see. This sounds more familiar, now."