"Oh, saying things and acting ways that help people feel like you are paying attention to them and want them to feel okay."

"Oh. Why don't bluemages do that? Tse Avimi said they can't think about people normally..."

"That's why, yeah. Some of them still do some things on reflex, they got very used to saying 'thank you' before they dwindled and kept that, but they can't decide to, they can't think people would rather they thanked them."

"...that sounds... scary. Scary to be, not scary to be near," she clarifies, and then thinks about it for a second, and amends, "...a little scary to be near."

"Oh, they won't hurt you. They might - fix your collar without asking, or not get out of your way, but it doesn't make them violent. Some of them get less violent if they were as kids."

"Really? They don't—push someone who walks in front of them? Close doors on people?"

"I guess maybe one would do that if they dwindled a lot very young. They don't start scheduling them till they have good habits."

She nods slowly.

"I would not like to be a bluemage," she says. "It's... I think that thinking about people is where most of the good things in life are."

"I think some kids hope for it. They live a full life and they're - comfortable in a way greenmages aren't - and don't have clients like redmages."

"That makes sense but I am very thinking about people."

"Well, you're a goldmage so you'll be fine."

Meanwhile,

In complete ignorance of events happening in other universes, Ruava nods acknowledgingly. "People don't choose which kind to be, then? People are sometimes a kind they're scared of being?"

"They don't choose. If a kid can't stand the idea of any kind they don't take them."

"My not-mage thing, people are born with, but we're born with a kind we're - not scared of. I'm very thinking about people and my magic is the magic that is about people and that is... how things are."

"That sounds nice."

How, using her current vocabulary, does she explain...

"...sometimes, someone thinks about people a lot, and should maybe... think about them... less."

"...I guess?" he says, clearly not having any examples in mind but accepting it as the sort of thing that probably happens.

Maybe she can try again later with more words.

"Who has magic there? Are there springs?"

"No springs. We don't know what makes some people be born with magic and not others. Sometimes it's people in the same family—my parents both had magic—but sometimes not."

"Huh. Mages here have magic families but they're all adopted."

"That makes sense if you have the kids first and then make them magic after, I guess... do mages sometimes have not-adopted kids?"

"They're not supposed to. Sometimes it happens anyway."

"Why not?"

"Goldmages lose the baby if they use magic. Blues get - sick of being pregnant, they'll take something to stop. Greens have weird health problems sometimes, whites have, uh, less-weird health problems. Reds could but they don't because the other mages don't. But sometimes a male mage will get a servant pregnant, or a redmage will forget her Seedlessness and her attendant won't remind her, and it's not too big a deal."