"Witches usually have to breathe! Liches not so much. --Lich isn't a species, it's a thing you can become if you're a good enough necromancer. Aurai screams send you back in time until you can find the magic glowy butterfly that'll bring you back to the present. Aurai gain mana from the energy produced by the timeline correcting itself so that from the perspective of everyone not the person who was screamed at, this never happened."

"That sounds... sort of like the sort of thing that would eventually result in accumulated timeline damage? Does the timeline correction mechanism just have infinite energy to do that with?"

"--Uh, that is...a good question...it might be that the energy is infinite, it might be that the energy is theoretically limited but is kept sustainable by the fact that Aurai are really rare and as time passes more past accumulates, I imagine that if this were a serious problem there would be more concerted efforts to hunt down the Aurai that do exist but I am definitely putting that on a list of things to look into."

"Happy to help with my hard-earned skill of incredible paranoia."

"That might be a really valuable skill honestly."

"Sure is in our line of - work, existence, whatever."

"Terrible things don't happen here often enough to acculturate people to extreme paranoia--"

"Or to kill off everyone who lacks it."

"--but they do happen, like, ever, and more ability to spot them coming would be nice."

Nod nod. She works steadily through her ice cream and goes on flipping through the witch magic book for more things that might be handy.

Rank zero Hexes magic is minting witch kisses (the book also does not provide an explanation for why they're called that). Rank zero Witchery magic is summoning mothergifts, which the three of them probably wouldn't have even if they did manage to become witches somehow, on account of not being descended from the witch who invented them. Rank zero Familiarity magic is just calling a beneficent spirit as a familiar, which is something of a commitment but certainly handy in at least some circumstances. Rank zero Divination they have already confirmed works for them. Rank zero Necromancy is basically just being able to see and communicate with ghosts who happen to be nearby, and if any of them happen to be around here none of the three witches have mentioned it. Rank zero Dominion magic is the ability to create temporary bubbles of altered reality only perceptible to those within them. 

"...huh, I might want to pick up the rank zero Dominion thing, I don't have a very specific use case in mind but it seems like the sort of thing that would be good to have in one's pocket - what do witches usually do with that?"

"Avoid masquerade breaches and/or keep dangerous things away from the civilians."

"Sounds good." She will set about learning that.

"Any plans for how to spend the time until Johann's professor gets back to us?" Melody asks Aadhya and Caio. 

"I had been going to just decompress at home but since I am not home I have no idea."

"Same."

"Here isn't terrible for decompressing! There are lots of relaxing things to do around campus."

"It does however lack several advantages, such as being their home," 

"...Well, yes."

"What are your decompression related amenities?"

"Swimming pool, gardens, several different libraries, a couple of little cafes with very nice teas...I like the libraries best, myself, especially Cooper Library, there's this bay window on the third floor with lovely window cushions to curl up on."

"Oh, a swimming pool... my house has a swimming pool..."

"A garden sounds really nice."

"Swimming's nice! Most of the pool is Olympic-style for swimming laps but about a third of it is sectioned off and tilted at the bottom like the kind you find in hotels and stuff."