Tanya has a Grade A professional smile on her face and looks very attentive! Her orb is set to recording mode and she will be sure to study this enlightening explanation later! 

(Why the hell couldn't he answer the most basic questions about his and Terendelev's affiliations somewhere in all that! And he thinks this catechism is important enough to put off discussing tactics or stopping the ongoing attack outside? She can see Terendelev fidget! Truly, religion is a species-agnostic brain rot that affects even aliens! The only useful fact was that it's illegal to worship 'evil and chaotic' gods and any idiot could have guessed that!)

If Tanya tells these people about Being X they may believe her but they clearly aren't going to be rational about it. She seizes on the distraction gratefully. "What do these do, and the spells you cast earlier?" She gives Terendelev the mysterious bracers she took off earlier.

He has a feeling he did something subtly wrong… what is he missing…

He might have not accounted for mortals lacking eidetic or near eidetic memory.  …that was one of his contributing factors in screwing up his second attempt at a “technologically advanced spaceship crashes near the Pit of Gormuz” scenario.

He’ll apologize when he has the chance.

“The cloak grants resistance, improving will, fortitude, and reflexes (in dodging things, not in general).   The ring deflects attacks, not reliably, it depends on the exact angle.  The amulet makes your body harder to pierce or injure as it you had natural armor like scales.  The headband increases your wisdom, which improves your willpower, which among many other magical effects it help you resist, makes you harder to dominate.  Jon was probably concerned because it also increases your ability to introspection which can be disruptive the first time you experience it.  The bracers  of armor are a weaker version of mage armor, but the spell lasts an hour anyway, so I might as well use the scroll instead.  It creates magically weightless armor of force that doesn’t impede movements.”

”Give me a moment for the bracers …”

“I’m still only detecting the same thing I detected earlier, a minor luck effect to armor and to will, fortitude, and reflexes.  It’s an unusual effect, but it’s minor in strength, so probably not worth the unknown risk.  Given the sheer unusualness of everything going on, I’m not confident someone skilled enough with an exotic enough spell or technique couldn’t hide something.”

"I must be missing something obvious, but I don't know how to use the local kind of magical implement," Tanya points out. "And I don't think I can use anything at the same time as my orb."

"You... wear them?  They are all passive, they don't even require an activation word or gesture."

Does her orb use up all bodily slots simultaneously?  That would still be a small cost compared to whatever help it is giving her that allows her to fly constantly and slay hundreds of demons without worrying about using up her magic.

"The items are slotted, that is, tied to particularly body parts to wear them on... you can't wear two items on the same body part simultaneously, or more than one ring per hand, and get their benefit.  We could test it, normally items interfering on the same slot is completely harmless, it just means one or both items stop working.  Do you expect your orb to be different?"

"I'm afraid there appears to be some misunderstanding. I will describe my understanding; please tell me what the problem is."

"Magic isn't directly useful... for us, if you can use it directly then - never mind. Achieving a desired effect requires mathematical calculations, which need to be carried out every time because they depend on the environment, and which humans can't reliably carry out at the required speed. For example, flying requires calculating the force vector to apply to each part of the body while taking into account altitude, wind, gravity, existing speed and rotational momentum, the aerodynamics of your body and everything you're carrying and the partially-permeable magical defensive barrier... Humans can't keep track of so many variables."

"The computation orbs are so called because they physically perform the required calculations, leaving the mage a comparatively very simple task. They are built to support specific spells by calculating specific formulae, and it is possible to synchronize a mage's mind with an orb so that their sense data is instinctively transmitted to it and the result of the calculations instinctively applied to the spell being cast. They also contain mechanisms that greatly amplify the effects of magic used in certain spells, such as light and heat production, and - perform other functions." She'd be a hypocrite if she made this digression any longer.

"Orbs are miniaturized to be easily carried and reduce waste heat, and this restricts the number of formulae they can support so the specific combination is carefully chosen for each model. The best orbs allow running more spells at the same time, but the mage must be skilled enough to keep track of them all. Mages train to use specific orb models and specific spells; trying to use an unfamiliar one is - risky."

"The orb has to be near for me to use it - technically this means near my head, although I wear it on my chest - but it's not otherwise associated with a body part. It's possible to use two magical implements at once, but it's easier and more efficient to use an orb that has both spells."

Magic and Spellcraft are not his specialities, but this is all extremely fascinating, and his overall conclusion is that her magic is much more closely tied to physics… except now he’s wondering if everyone on Earth or Earth is going to die in the near future when someone invents a mass to energy formula.  It occurs to him Earth recently developing a style of magic that will lead to planet destroying mass-energy conversions is exactly the sort of the thing that might get that magic censored from the reports he remembers reading!  (He’s supposed to be prepped for callings requiring unusually high context with few limits on his knowledge, but few limits isn’t none.)

“That is interesting and I would love to have a conversation about the differences in our magic (which I can now assure you are very very different) sometime that isn’t a crisis.  The items are passive in a way that would make it nearly impossible for them to cause any disasters or even problems just from trying them on, and I can verify that they aren’t interfering and are working with a detect magic once you are wearing them.  So the only risk is from the orb, which I don’t actually understand your explanation to indicate any risk from?”

She talks quickly and is doing her best to hide her impatience, but the demons could have rallied in the nearly 20 minutes or so it had been since Tanya’s attacks scattered and demoralized them so she is in fact impatient.

"It's not a risk, it's an inability - wait. By 'passive', do you mean - you have solved mana fixation? These are self-powered, I don't need to operate them?" Tanya reminds herself they are a more magically advanced civilization. That shouldn't keep being such a surprise, Tanya's world might be as advanced in another century or two! 

"Then yes, I see no magical problem. I may need to get used to the improved reflexes since I use my own magic for that, let me try them on -" She will quickly and efficiently attach the items as directed.

(She appreciates Terendelev wanting to send her out more quickly! It is Terendelev's job to remind her contractor Jon of that fact! He was hired as a spotter and magical tactics analyst, not a theologian!)

"Mana fixation sounds like the process for getting undifferentiated pluripotent magic into stable forms?  Yes, I would describe that as the basis of almost all of our more usable magic, and these items feature 'mana fixed into spells' with basically no effort to operate."

Oh good, they are almost back to killing demons.  It is surprising that Tanya's civilization can utilize magic at all if they are stuck utilizing it as raw mana, but whatever tricks or techniques around that limit they've found have apparently paid massive dividends!

He continues to be worried about the potential for self destruction Tanya's civilization likely has!  Undifferentiated pluripotent magic (i.e. 'mana') is closer to how the Gods use magic when they aren't concerned about treaty limitations!

He's been mentally reviewing his conversation with Tanya so far in the spare moment he has while Terendelev and Tanya talk and has spotted a few more points of confusion he should clear up!  He needs to be concise though, how best to say them...

The bracers of armor create a simple plate of translucent, nearly transparent force covering her chest.  As indicated it does not impede her at all and feel weightless.  The ring has some subtle effect around her, barely discernable to her magical senses, even with direct contact with the ring making it easier.  Likewise for the cloak.  If she strains her senses, she can barely feel the mana fixed within them, not actively moving or changing, but complex spells with abstract 3 dimensional forms woven into the objects.

The headband, magically speaking, is effectively the same, but it opens up her mind noticeably...

Is that a local-style mental speedup spell - no it's definitely not just a speedup, it feels like - some things become clearer, some things are easier to notice and be sure of, the fears and uncertainties she can't act on become easier to set aside...

In other words, a moderate magical stimulant! Tanya decides she likes it. It makes her long for a good cup of coffee to complete her pre-combat preparations.

...it also suddenly makes her acutely, achingly aware of why exactly she wants that coffee and what associations she has built up around it. But at the same time it gives her the willpower to set that aside, so - she'll keep it for combat.

As a responsible chronic user of stimulants, she must ask: "does the mental effect change over time, is it addictive and does it have withdrawal symptoms or any other downsides?"

He can address this one.  He speaks to both of them.  "Short answer, no, especially as that is the weakest type of wisdom headband-"  He turns to Terendelev and she nods yes. "-and especially if you don't wear it for longer than a day."

"Slightly longer answer, for stronger headbands, people develop some dependency on them, not so much in an addicted way, but in a really enjoying the benefits kind of way, the exact nature of that enjoyment depending on the type of headband.  I will hold off with more explanation unless you specifically need more for now?"

"It's not urgent." She looks a question at Terendelev; what's left to do before she deploys?

"I've done everything I can to prepare you..."

She thinks of one thing she'd really rather skip but Tanya hasn't said she didn't want compensation at any point so she might as well set things out as quickly as she can.

"...we didn't actually discuss increased compensation.  I think you have longer durations you can use your magic for than I was realizing earlier, so I'll double the maximum bound on what I was promising earlier?   So, with my 7th circle casting and I will commit to paying what the Abadarans would evaluate as a fair price for your aid, with a minimum of the value of a quarter of my spells for a year, and the maximum of either half the value of my spells for a year or a quarter of the value of my spell for two years, your choice to be decided when you have time.  (I note the difference because selling more of my spells on any given day might get a slightly lower price as higher bid are fulfilled)."

In one sense, that is a huge amount of money.  In another, at the rate of hundreds of demons dead in 10 minutes, even if Tanya only has another 20 minutes in her, it is outright cheap.  She isn't sure if she should feel bad for under or over paying!

That is a lot of money, but makes sense if Tanya's offensive magic matches her flight.  Being more closely tied to physics, it might even ignore spell resistance!  He mentally tallies another little bit of evidence towards "Evil Abadaran".

Well, it's presumably not a lot to someone who 'patronizes' a whole city, her personal magic can't be a very big portion of her income even if it's the most fungible part, but Tanya imagines it's meant to impress on an absolute scale: three months' salary of a powerful local mage offered to a powerful foreign one for their difference in their specializations and the time-value of her help. Ah, civilization! Tanya basks in the appreciation of her talents and the high opening offers. She'll accept it happily; the true negotiations will come when Jon has attested to her work and they're talking about more than a day's light effort.

"Gladly. Jon, are you ready?" They'll need to figure out on the job how to best work together; even if he can spot targets as quickly as she can shoot them, there's still the matter of efficient communication.

He would like to apologize, but delaying to make an apology about delaying them would kind of defeat the point.

He flies up and cling to her shoulder, firmly but not in a way that impedes her motion.  He addresses just her.

“The same way I fly, I should be able to minimize how much interfere with your aerodynamic profile.  I can accurately discern identifying features of human sized target from 2500 feet, which is just outside the range of the longest range spells by the most powerful casters using Enlarge metamagic, and demons aren’t likely to have metamagic anyway.  Although I cannot discern that accurately if you are doing preemptive evasive maneuvers at full speed… 100 kilometers per hour should be more than adequate to avoid being in range of teleporters trying to teleport on top of you.  I can continue using a message spell, although-.”

To both of them “- do you have a telepathic bond you can spare?  And do you have any objection to my covering both of us with Nondetection and Undetectable Alignment?” 

“Right, I forgot…”

She pulls out a scroll from a pouch on her person.

“It’s the only scroll of it I have.  It will allow 90 minutes of mental communication between us.  You can send mental images to each other.  …it will be between all 3 of us, and I anticipate being underground defending the Wardstone so I won’t be able to communicate spotting information, but it won’t distract me and I’d rather be in the loop.  Jon, if there is anything that needs to be need to know you’ll need to just keep using your message.”

She takes 3 seconds to cast it.

“It will make a few inquisitors more paranoid of you, but you shouldn’t need to interact face to face anyway, so on the balance it is easily worth it.”

“Anything else?”

Paranoid inquisitors that the local (politically powerful) faithful are openly distrustful of, check. Religion truly is the gift that keeps giving, or something... if only she could inflict it on her enemies but keep it away from home. She's lucky Germanian religion was mostly vestigial; if a stranger used unregistered military-grade magic in public it wasn't the local church they had to fear stopping them on the street!

More importantly: mental communication? It... probably makes sense, since magic is mental to begin with? This may take some time to get used to but it could help her coordinate with Jon...

"Nothing more." Whispering to Jon: "how do I use the mental comms?"

And at Terendelev's nod, she can finally take off! Sedately for the first few seconds, to make sure Jon is holding on as she exits the building, and then there is sky above and she accelerates.

It only requires a bit of intent.  Focusing a moment should do it.  You may require a little bit of practice to do mental images and sense instead of just words, but it is achievable.

Sending visual of targets.  

[A mental image of (mostly) humans armed with scythes and an assortment of other weapons appears in Tanya’s mind, along with a kinesthetic sense of their location below and to her left.]

30 degrees on your left.  Lethal force is acceptable.

Indeed, there is a gathering of people there, patrolling through the streets and armed.  It’s notable that Jon’s vision (it appears he sent the mental image exactly as he saw it) is substantially better than humans and slightly different, kind of like how you might imagine an eagle’s sight.

It occurs to him he might have been selected for this mission in some part simply because of his better long range vision.  He will slightly down weight his estimates on other reasons he might have been selected.

Instead of a gathering of people there is now a scattering of people-parts, and a few new potholes in the street.

Normally I fly much higher and use lenses to see at varying distances. Bending light is useful on its own as well as a component optical sniping formulas and decoy illusions. They move with my head, I could create one for you but it would always point in line with either my head or my torso. It's probably possible to make one to track your movements but it would require practice. Staying so low (2500 feet!) and barely dodging is really bothering Tanya's instincts; never mind AA canon, an infantry sniper could hit her at this range! He'd have to be very good and very lucky but Tanya didn't live to be fourteen by relying on luck.