There is nothing like the feeling of making sense of a complicated magical problem and then using your knowledge into something more practical. He announces the good news, and that he will be the one going, because he is sure this will be much safer if the caster is the also sending himself. Not to mention that his ability to compact himself will make it much easier to do calculations.

They pair him up with a spirit translator, and then he starts the casting process. The first stage requires him to be in his human form, but he shrinks himself as the weave of magic develops around him and his passenger. He is limbless and blind by the end of it.

Then he appears elsewhere.

But he still can sense the lack of gravity and the change in the air makes it pretty obvious and he "unfolds" back into his prefered human shape.

Merves has built something of a routine; work with Areus on languages, talk to Areus about his refugee crisis, and wheedle Areus into helping move the city- this last one has continued to prove unsuccessful, as he insists on being Good about things. It's somewhat more exciting than his daily life prior to his arrival, for which Merves is grateful, even if nothing else comes of all this. Then, after a few days pass without incident...an incident happens. A ball of cyan fabric appears above Areus during the course of an ordinary conversation, and unfolds into arms, legs, and a head, revealing a humanoid figure- and then another, appearing next to the first, at a foot and a half tall.

"Areus," says the arrival, and this doesn't make the sudden appearance less shocking; Merves barely registers it.

"Aaa!" Merves says.

"Temperance! Couldn't you give a warning?" 

"Oh, sorry. But we really couldn't." Well, it would take longer, and it's not like he wouldn't get busy eventually. "Also, hi! I am Areus' half-sibling. Sorry for the scare."

Oooh, no gravity. Did Areus mention that to their father? Temperance can see this being a problem for some refugees, which Areus would completely fail to notice because it would take him a few minutes to adjust. Temperance is not complaining, it's interesting and only a problem in the long term. And to him is not really a problem at all. He introduces himself to Areus' friend and then demonstrates the flexibility of his shapeshifting by growing tentacles and showing how dexterous they are to Merves.

And of course the answer to any question related to learning about magic is "yes". With only exceptions when it can be "later, because I can learn more magic that way".

Merves thinks shapeshifting has fascinating implications! He isn't asking about that, though. He isn't. Temperance asks him where to put a beacon, and with that minor piece of logistics resolved, they're free to talk about magic. Merves doesn't find magic nearly as interesting as Temperance does, but he can talk about the subject with some authority.

"The first place to begin with our understanding of magic is to ask, what is the difference between the body and the soul?"

"In Actana at least, the body is the physical housing of the soul, which is a bit of magic that stores' a being self. Is that different here?"

Nod.

"The body is made up of matter, but the soul is made up of belief. The parts of us that think, feel, and decide- that is the soul. The part of us that senses, reacts, and allows us to act in the world- that is the body. Magic refers to all the unnatural things that people can do when they align their body or soul with a plane besides their own. If it arises from the natural connection of the body, the soul, and the plane you are on, it isn't considered magic. Swimming is not magic, breathing water is not magic, seeing in the dark is not magic- for a triton such as myself. Those are natural abilities. Magic is anything else that a triton cannot do without aligning with somewhere else."

Temperance takes notes. "This sounds like an explanation why your world is different from ours. I mean if it's possible to have connections like that. Please, continue?"

"People can align themselves with all kinds of planes while on the prime, but the selection is more limited here. Some planes are closer to each other than others. The planes closest to Water are Steam, Salt, Ooze, and Ice, so most people here align with one of those, although the Ethereal is also an option. People who align their bodies with other planes are called fighters, and people who align their souls with other planes are called spellcasters."

"Interesting. Is it easier to align to a plane while in it?"

"In most ways, no, surprisingly, if you're a native. It's easiest to align yourself with neighboring planes, as opposed to the one you're standing in or more distant ones. Some do align with Water on Water, but it's more rare than you'd expect. Takes the right kind of way of thinking. I'm a fighter aligned with Salt, personally."

"Interesting. What are the effects of having your body aligned to Salt?"

"I hear the whispers of the recently deceased. They call to me, seeking vengeance on those that have wronged them, or restitution. I seek favors from them. I can also preserve my own body, in case I am fatally injured, so that healers can bring me back long past the time others would have moved on to their afterlife. My body is unusually resistant, and I can survive poisons and diseases that would kill a lesser triton. My screams, if I intend them to, can disable an enemy before they have a chance to strike."

Frown. "And none of that is magic?"

"All of that is magic. None of it is spellcasting. It uses only my body, not my soul."

Temperance talks with his translator, and gets a few terms down. "Is it possible to do both? Or align to multiple planes?"

"It's possible to be a fighter and a spellcaster, but it's much more difficult to align with different planes. Alignment represents your priorities, and most people don't want vastly varied, different, or contradicting things out of life. Becoming a spellcaster requires training your soul, and becoming a fighter requires training your body."

Temperance nods upon hearing that translation. "Species in Actana have elemental magic, do you expect this to affect how we align to the planes? I am a half sea-serpent and half-dragon. Which is water and magic itself."

"It may affect how your body aligns. I don't expect it to affect your soul. When the body aligns with a plane, you will sense the change immediately; detecting changes in the soul's alignment are more difficult. I can show you the exercises I learned."

Grin. "I would be very interested in that!"

"Alright. What would you need to know about a plane to decide if you want to align with it? Understand that aligning with a plane means taking on some of its qualities- in the case of the body, this is more about senses and weight and things- how it feels to be in your body."

"I like versatility over raw power. Out of those you mentioned that near Water my first hunch is assuming that Ice is the most versatile, but I don't know much about any of them. And I don't have a strong sense of what Ooze amounts to. Also, I have a freezing breath due to being a hybrid."

Nod.

"The freezing breath suggests your body already has an affinity with Ice, so it's what I would recommend. Briefly, I can summarize your options. Steam is energized, active water; it moves freely, traveling in gaseous form. Although we call it Steam, it would be just as accurate to call it mist or fog, since any gaseous part of water is part of that plane. Salt is desiccation. It is what absorbs water, leaving only dryness. Where Salt goes, no Water remains. Ice is where Water and Air meet; Ice is about a tenuous kind of solidity. It is coldness but not firmness; ice can crack or melt. Ooze is where Water and Earth meet; it is warmer than Water, and more solid. Ooze is slow, ponderous, and challenging to move through, but it is also comforting, welcoming."

"Huh... sounds like it would be something between Steam or Ice, oddly enough. I am not Ooze at all."

Nod.

"Your soul is most likely Steam. Your body may be Ice, though, given your freezing breath and your apparent identification with my description; instincts like that usually indicate your body's most favorable alignment. Shall we begin with some Ice exercises?"

He rests his head on his chins. "Yes, please!"

Merves demonstrates what he knows. It's best to start with something simple.

"For Ice, they recommend breathing exercises. First, breathe in and out very rapidly. In, out. In out. Don't worry if it feels odd; you're intentionally breathing in an unnatural way to practice the feeling of Air traveling through your body quickly."

Temperance tries to bounce with excitement, good thing he already had his tentacles to keep him in place. Instead, he will diligently follow the breathing exercises.

He doesn't feel much different.

"Good. Now, try with deep breaths. In...out...in...out. Focus on the breath, not on any other part of your body."

Okay. This is the time where Areus gets too restless and decides to go out. He might be interested in this kind of magic in the future, but watching people breathe is just too much.

Tentacle-wave. But then starts focusing on his breath, only his breath. It's easy enough for someone whose breath can be a weapon.

Merves nods and waves him off dismissively.

Temperance finds that as he breathes in and out, he starts feeling somewhat colder- not unpleasantly so, more like a gentle wave of cool air is rippling through his body- it doesn't hurt.

Interesting! He remains focused on the gentle coolness.

Focusing on the feeling causes it to fade away as his breathing becomes more natural.

Not surprising, but he can get back on that state of only focusing on his breath, right?

Now that he is actively seeking that state, it seems more elusive.

Merves waits; interrupting this will likely make it more difficult.

Temperance is unbothered. He can start over and focus on just doing the exercise.

When he's managed to reach a state of just focusing on his breath, the cool feeling returns. The longer he breathes deeply, steadily, the more the feeling spreads, until he feels a slight discomfort in his throat- it is warmer than the rest of his body. He could make it cooler, though.

Does trying to make it cooler causes him to lose focus?

It doesn't seem to do anything. Temperance remains aware that his breathing is slow and steady and his entire body is cool, except for his throat and his mouth.

He pauses the breathing exercise, mentally revises that this sounds like it's as far he will get on his own and then asks Merves about the next step.

"If you've managed to feel cool and firm in your entire body, you're ready to begin moving."

Merves stands, eager to move on to the fun part.

"Moving?"

"Yes. Now that your body has aligned with Ice for the first time, you need to practice re-creating that state while in motion. This exercise was fairly similar to the one I did when I first started, because Ice and Salt have in common the tendency to inaction and solidity. You'll be learning to move despite that- using that. Think about your body as a solid piece, complete and indivisible. You are but ice, and you cannot move fluidly without melting. You do not want to melt. Do you know anything in your world about how ice moves? Or snow, in large enough quantities?"

"You mean like in glaciers? Also, how will this interact with how I can freely change my shape? A strong part of my relationship to my body is how it is in a shape now, but not stuck in it. Staying in one shape for too long causes me to want to tear my hair apart."

"-you might want to choose something other than Ice, no matter how much freezing breath you have. It normally matters less to people what their body is aligned with, but if you value shape-shifting that much, you would be better served by Steam."

"Ah, fair." Pondering. "Is there some other plane with a mentality compatible to shape-shifting? It sounds likely that we should find a better fit. Shape-shifting is... something that I am rather than just something I value."

"I'd need to know more about what you mean by that. My body is aligned with Salt, but my soul isn't aligned with any of the nearby planes, because aligning your soul with one of the Inner Planes takes an unusual kind of person. You'd have to care more about bodies and matter and other physical things than beliefs, opinions, and abstractions."

"I guess I shouldn't have used 'mentally'. You used the term 'value shape-shifting' the translation of that implies something more intellectual than my relationship with shape-shifting. Which is closer to people's relationship with sitting on their legs and finding that they went numb because of the lack of blood flow. Every so often I need to change or it becomes uncomfortable to be in my body. Sometimes I need to be a girl, sometimes I need to have wings or insect-like carapace."

"-huh. Of your current options, I would still suggest Steam, but you could try Water. It is still foreign to you."

Shrug. "I was just making sure we are not wasting your time. What are the Steam exercises?"

Steam exercises!

They start with same initial breathing exercise as before, which is simple enough. The follow-up this time does not involve deeper breaths, though; instead, he is led through some aerobic exercise designed to make him sweat.

Interesting, aerobic shifts into a triton-like shape to follow the exercise better. His little translator companion decides to hang out in the ceiling for a bit.

Eventually, Temperance will notice that he is sweating more than he might normally expect- it could be the triton form, but judging by Merves "Good, you're making progress", that is part of the process.

Temperance has a sense of how much forms should sweat. Apparently he is doing well, more reason to push forward? At least until Merves asks him to stop or to move on to the next sage.

As he continues, some of the sweat begins to evaporate unnaturally quickly. Temperance notices no other differences in how how he feels besides that he is staying cool and energized despite the exertion.

Temperance keeps focusing on the exercising but in the back of his mind he finds the effect interesting. He wonders if it could mean some synergy with shape-shifter tiredness.

Merves interrupts when Temperance has experienced a few minutes without further progress.

"That's all you'll be able to do in one day. You need to teach your body that sweating more often is useful and desirable; if you allow your attempts to align with another plane to drift too far from your body's natural patterns, your body will not end up aligned to the plane, your soul will. Keep in mind that you cannot let yourself think too much about this process; it should become part of your body's instincts and processes."

"I think the distinction should be easy to manage. For me at least. Is there a standard rate of progress? What are the benefits of Steam body alignment?"

"It takes years to move past initial improvements, so most people who train their magic this way stop there. At your level, you'll begin to notice that movement in water has become easier, that you have an improved sense of direction, that you can judge distances more accurately, and you tire less easily. You can identify other elemental pockets from a greater distance, and things like the discolored poison below our city will be possible to see even from a close distance. You will be able to survive in the water better, especially on the hotter end- extremely cold water will cause the typical damage.

You may find movement on land more difficult, with some loss of depth perception and difficulty breathing on mountains- I've only heard this second-hand, since we don't have anything like that in Water."

Temple nods. "I will adapt. Both literally and figuratively. Thanks for the instructions!"

Slight smile.

"You must have other questions about magic. Or are you satisfied already?"

"I do have more questions about magic, yes. It's hard to satisfy me in that topic. Oh, relevant question. You're supposed to have gods, right? How do they work?"

"Gods over-complicate things. Some people get their magic from them, but I find them to be unpleasant to work with. They expect perfect alignment between you and themselves, and that's much more challenging than aligning with an Outer Plane to begin with- Outer Planes are the planes formed from belief rather than matter or elements."

"I meant, more what are your gods? We had beings that we called gods, but our assumptions about them were wrong."

"Gods are powerful beings native to the Outer Planes, most of which have some hand in creating something big or complicated in Prime worlds: particular intelligent species, some natural phenomena, some kinds of magic, non-magical phenomena which couldn't happen naturally, some technology that no prime species invented but was just given to them. They have worshipers who are aligned with them and to whom they grant favors."

Temperance nods. "I think Areus mentioned that ours destroyed the world to commit suicide? We looked into other worlds before finding this one. We have been worried that your gods could pose a similar problem."

"If they're suicidal, then we won't hear about them. Gods can die if they're forgotten."

"Less suicidal, and more has plans to destroy everything, but okay. Anyway... the plans that work on belief, how does that work? Could you change one of them by telling lies?"

"You'd have to tell very widespread, very effective lies on the prime worlds, or introduce something completely new and lie very convincingly about that on the planes themselves. Only beliefs of primes and petitioners matter- and primes much more than petitioners. I'm not sure how you'll count. Maybe you're more prime than petitioner, and you can influence things, as can your fellow refugees."

Nod. "Interesting. Any idea why it works that way?"

"Are you asking why a plane built on belief would respond to beliefs, or are you asking why that would exist? We don't really know. It seems to fit with our understanding of the Prime Material Plane, though. Where elements and beliefs intersect, you find matter. Where you don't have beliefs, there are just elements, and where you don't have elements, there are just beliefs. The purest plane of belief is the Astral Plane, which connects all of the Outer Planes- some scholars theorize that maybe the Outer Planes are just particularly distinct parts of the Astral Plane, or the Outlands, or maybe they're all dreamed up by one of the dead gods- not dead if it's dreaming, I assume the theory goes? I've never speculated personally."

"I was asking why primers belief matter, but yours wouldn't. But you already answered my question."

He can also go over what he knows about other magic in general. Using their souls (or gods), people can become spellcasters: sorcerers, bards, priests, wizards, and psions. Using their bodies (or gods), people can become war-gymnasts: rangers, thieves, shamans, druids, and monks.

Fascinating, after getting an overview he finds interested in wizards.