"It might or might not require subterfuge. I'd have to think about whether it was preferable to risk attack by someone whose enmity I had already earned or to risk alienating someone I hadn't."

"Subterfuge? Why?"

"If we attempted to get you in copying range of one of the fae who have in the past attempted to kill me and/or my sister it would be wise to be invisible and as otherwise imperceptible as magic will allow."

"... oh," she says. "Yes. But why those ones in particular? Aren't there other fairies?"

"There are. But the question of whether they'd be enthusiastic about a random mortal deriving large amounts of power from them...isn't guaranteed to go in our favor. Politics, if nothing else," he says, wrinkling his nose.

"Oh..."

"Many fairies don't think very highly of humans."

"Hm," she says, somewhat disapprovingly.

"There is one fairy noble that I've heard good things about who has the relevant abilities, but I haven't met her and arriving in her territory unannounced and asking for things is perhaps not the best plan of action."

Riya considers.

"If I have enough unicorns, I can copy things so I can move them around, not just copy them for myself. Maybe she would like it better if we moved some things around for her?"

"Quite possibly. I do think it would be better if I asked around some first to see if I could arrange an introduction."

"Okay."

"This may be tricky, since the magician who told me of her died some decades ago. Still, I do have fey acquaintances, and she is a noblewoman, and an introduction is a much less perilous favor to ask than to greatly empower a human with unfamiliar magic..."

"Okay."

"Would you rather come with me, or continue to examine this forest while I arrange things?"

"I'd like to stay in the forest. I like this forest."

"It's a nice forest."

teleport!

Forest forest forest.

There is a poppy that releases an overwhelming soporific if plucked and several fungi that are actually not magic at all and a tree bearing a fruit that, if you touch it for long enough without plucking it, will adjust its nutrient content to perfectly match your body's needs at the moment.

What a fascinating fruit. Riya does not want to become the sort of thing that makes fruits, but if she did, she would want to make that fruit.

Well theoretically she could just take the nutrition part and have her body's biochemistry adjust to meet the nutritional needs of anyone who touched her for long enough but that is a significantly worse idea than becoming the sort of thing that makes fruits.

That would be terrible. She will not do that.

...She wonders if she could turn it around so that whatever food she touches becomes just the sort of thing she should eat. She'd need a unicorn, possibly. And an optionalizer. And possibly something else too but she isn't even sure what.

Well, the magic stays on the fruits when they're picked, it just goes dormant, so if she wanted to she could pick some fruits and take them with her.

It takes her a little more time to theorize that they might do that, but once she thinks of it, she picks a fruit. And then picks several more fruits, just in case. Many fruits.

And then Kanimir is back. He raises an eyebrow at the fruits.