"Hah, sure. Well, not the ones we're currently wearing, but we have lesser versions of them in our bag. We've been meaning to send some people to sell them in Absalom or something, but we haven't gotten around to that. We're rich partly because we kill and loot weak adventurers we come across. That's how we got started. What sort of item would you like? We have a wide variety of items here – do you want me to list their functions or do you want to think of something and I'll see if I have it? Bar said that it's fine to share magic items so long as it doesn't produce a permanent effect, and that they go to their original owners before you leave.

Yes. I don't need to know the waltz. If I don't describe which waltz you're supposed to do, you have some amount of control as to which waltz you're compelled into dancing. If you're incapable of dancing a waltz, then the curse – Geases are also curses – will tighten around you and you'll suffer degeneration of mind and body until you obey its command. So, be sure that you actually know how to do a waltz before I cast the spell. Geases normally last for days at a time, for us our castings last more than two weeks, but I'll deliberately shorten it to last only one minute in your case.

Normally, you'll also put an open-ended clause in the Geas like 'Obey what I tell you to do', which lets you edit the command on the fly, but obviously I'm not going to put a clause like that. My wording shall be: 'For one minute, dance a waltz.' Does that sound good to you?"

"An isekai is a story where someone enters another world and stays there for a long while and accomplishes something there.  Typically they're from the real world, end up in a fantasy world by accident, and fix it... but excuse me.

"I'll check for you, Jenwy, far as I can - of course I don't have the least idea about whatever magic topology he'll be doing."

Jenwy shifts forward on her stool as if she's about stand up, but then settles back.  On second thought, she'd rather let the Geas do that too.

"'Course I can dance waltzes.  I was at a dance just last week.  That wording sounds good to me if you know..."  She straightens, trying to think what Erchman or Arvi or the other wizards from her books who relied on exact words would say.  "... if you know it'll do both what I said and what I meant."

She's nervous, but no more nervous than the first time she went skydiving.  She's also really excited.

"Geas me."

"I am confident in spelling out Geas wordings. I'm a specialist in enchantment magic, remember? Give me a moment."

"For one minute, dance a waltz." Lesser Geas.

Unlike Detect Thoughts, there's a sensation around Jenwy's head like a tight cap being put on her, which abates soon after. Then, the impulsive urge to do what the geas says – to dance – bubbles up from an instinctive part of her.

Jenwy starts at the sensation of the cap.  She's really feeling magic now!  That isn't anything material touching her head; it isn't in her imagination either; it's actual magic!

She reflexively jumps off her stool to her feet.  But then, just as she's about to start dancing, she remembers she wants to test the spell and feel the magic.  She clings to the bar counter and stands still.

Jenwy can feel the magic clinging to her mind, urging her, distracting her, itching her feet and arms and mind.  She could hold out if she had a really good reason... probably... if it was really really good... but she's finding it a little hard to even focus on speculating...

Areli is starting to look a little worried.  He knows Jenwy's probably stopping herself as an experiment, but this's still exactly how it'd look if the spell had given her some bad command...

Okay, Jenwy tells herself, she's felt the magic's nagging and she doesn't like it; time to dance!

She jumps back from the bar counter in something like a dancer's leap, lands in the open, and starts dancing her favorite solo waltz.  The magic's not actually lifting her feet and spinning her arms, but - if she focuses - she can still sense it in her mind driving her to keep up the dance.

It's weird.  It's magic.

She tries to intentionally drop out of rhythm for a moment, but her foot still keeps in the rhythm despite herself, just as reflexively as if she were catching herself from tripping.

Suddenly, the drive isn't there any longer.

She drops out of step, finds she can - finds she just did - and tops it off with one more leap that definitely doesn't belong in a waltz just because she can.

Then she stands still, breathes deeply, smooths her skirts, and breathes deeply again.  She's excited; she felt magic!  But it's still weird.  It was weird new reflexes and urges burrowing into her head, and - looking back, now - she doesn't like how she couldn't stop them.

"How is it? I specialize in enchantment, so my enchantment spells are likewise very difficult to resist. You can try, though." He chuckles. "It's quite a strange feeling, isn't it? You can continue to do other actions so long as they don't interfere with the dancing – Geases are narrow like that. Enchantments are very fun. It's not a very common specialty since enchantment magic is rather narrow in scope, but I have a talent for it."

A surprisingly good dancer! He makes his approval evident on his face, and claps.

"What about you, Areli? You looked a little concerned earlier. Do you want me to cast magic on you too? It doesn't have to be enchantment. I could have Conrad cast transmutation magic on you. There's tons of fun transmutation spells: Enlarge Person, Fly, Polymorph, Gaseous Form, or Haste. Enlarge Person is particularly fun to use in the bedroom." He leans forward and lowers his voice, as if saying something secret of great import. "Truth be told, I've been trying to cajole Conrad into developing a selective variant of Enlarge Person." He laughs.

"Alternatively, I can cast magic with visible on an item or in an area, if you don't want to be a target. Don't worry, Bar, I won't cast spells that will destroy things or will make a mess.

He glares at Damian.

"That is not a good use of my time. I want to make actually useful spells like your new episodic memory erasure spell. And besides, I already helped you with your single-target Black Tentacles variant spell – there is a limit to the amount of indulgence I will tolerate."

"Oh, fine. You're no fun. It's not like we're wasting time here, you know – this is a timeless demiplane. We can spend as much time here as we want. Bar, do you have rooms for rent?"

:We do. The pricing schema is similar to the drink price schema.:

"Wonderful," he says, putting down a handful of gold coins. "A room for two, please. We'll stay the night...to the extent night is a meaningful concept in this demiplane."

Jenwy blushes at the mention of bedroom uses of Enlarge Person.

"The Geas is... strange, yes.  It doesn't hurt, but it's not really nice.  What other enchantments can you do?  Or those 'transmutation spells' sound even more fun, like polymorphing or even flying!

Jenwy gasps a little when Conrad mentions the memory erasure spell.  "Memory magic?  That could be really fun too - but it sounds dangerous to have around.  I mean, I trust you after that Geas, but any of your enemies -"

She suddenly chuckles, realizing how that sounded.  "I mean, I trust you because you didn't change up the Geas and let it wear off.  Or at least that's what I think!"

Areli takes a ballpoint pen out of his pocket and twirls it thoughtfully in his fingers.  "I'll pass on the Geas, thanks.  But I'd go for a Fly or Gaseous Form...  Or, how exact can a Polymorph be?  Can you, say, Polymorph into someone else?  Or Polymorph wings onto your back without turning the rest of you into a bird?

"And for that matter, do you have any books from your world?  Or do you, Bar - at least to read in here even though I can't take them home?"

(He chuckles along with Jenwy, though a little more hollowly.)

"Other enchantments? I have lots. Charm Person, Dominate Person, Unnatural Lust, Hypnotism and Seducer's Eyes, to name a few." He laughs.

"Of course, I also have more helpful and less obscene enchantments such as Heroism, Delay Pain, Keep Watch, Crushing Despair, and Binding.

Mmhmm, it's very useful to keep secrets from getting out. You can't use it on the battlefield, though. It takes a whole ten minutes to cast, and it requires that you be touching the other person. And yes, the Geas has worn off, now that you have fulfilled its command – you no longer feel the urge to dance, I'm sure."

"You can't Polymorph into someone else. That's a little too precise for Alter Self, or for you, Polymorph. I can get close – I'm very good at transmutation – but usually you'll need Disguise Self, or in your case, Disguise Other, to take you the rest of the way. You can even use it to change your sex for a time: when I was in the military at the Worldwound, I would give my superiors sexual favors by polymorphing into beautiful women, so that they'll approve my requests for spellsilver so I could enchant my greatsword." He taps the sheath on his belt. "Oh, and copy spells too.

You can't do that. Polymorphing spells usually change the whole of your form. If you want to fly, just cast Fly. No need for wings. If you want to have wings just for the appearance of wings, try an illusion spell like Major Image instead."

Jenwy is blushing even more.

"Uh, that - that Binding one.  How does that work?  And how much can you do with memory magic - there're a lot of books that limit it so you can't make false memories, or you can only wipe the last hour, or something like that.  But there was one I read that went so much farther and had wild loops of conspiracies and false memories over false memories."

"Binding is one of the most powerful sealing spells you can cast. It's the sort of thing you use to bind very strong monsters, and usually requires several people to cast. And it also requires thousands of gold pieces' worth of gemstones. Total overkill in most cases. For more quotidian purposes, you'll want Hold Person or perhaps Animate Rope.

It depends. The go-to spell for memory modification is the helpfully named Modify Memory. It can do one of four things: erase someone's true memory, permit someone to recall a true memory with perfect clarity, change the details of a true memory, or implant a false memory – where 'true' is an event they actually experienced. The limitation of it is that you can only affect five minute blocks of time with each casting. More time means more castings. We're only interested in the first use-case, but we needed it to affect a much longer duration, on the span of years. 

My spell, which I haven't named yet, can erase a continuous segment of someone's episodic memory of up to ten years' duration. There cannot be any seams in it: you have to erase the whole block. If you want to be selective, you must cast it multiple times. It cannot implant false memories.

If you have any particular memories you feel like erasing, I can help you with that – but you must know the exact dates which are to be erased."

"No!"  Her memory is her own; nothing can touch it!

Except apparently it can now, with loose enough limits that people can't be confident, but still real enough that it makes sense some conspiracy hasn't taken over the world yet.

But, say... this spell could open up any number of schemes which wouldn't even involve her lying anymore...

(Jenwy glances at Areli inquisitively.)

"Can you restore the original memories afterwards?  And it sounds like you only do episodic memory?"

There're any number of cases where a truly unbiased witness would be useful to judge debates.  But if they can only erase episodic memory - well, it might still work in some cases, but probably not since the bias will have woven itself through the person's mind in time that can't be erased.

"Or, well, it must be useful in misleading people on your adventures."

"You can't. My memory removal spell is instantaneous rather than permanent. This means that there's no way to restore the lost memories using the usual methods of Break Enchantment, Remove Curse, or Heal. Limited Wish or Wish might be able to do it, I don't think there's a safe wording. I first developed it as a seventh-circle spell, then spent the next year optimizing it to sixth-circle. It took another year to get it down to fifth. I don't think it's possible to get it to fourth, even though that's the circle that the spells I based it off of are: Amnesia and Modify Memory.

We don't use it to mislead people. It takes ten minutes to cast, and you must be touching the person. Further, the spell can be resisted with Will. It's not a combat spell by any means. We use it if someone in our organization wants to leave. We have about fifty people working for us, and we have a secret hermetically sealed underground base in the mountains that's only accessible via teleportation magic. Now, see, Conrad," he looks at him, "is very concerned about people having...exit rights.

That is to say, he wants people to be able to freely stop working for us, because that means that only those loyal to us will stay, and we'll spend less effort Detecting Thoughts and ensuring that people don't backstab us. Which is admittedly tiresome. We obviously don't want our secrets to get out, especially the location of our base. Knowing where to Teleport to will expose our base to risk, even though we have a Teleport Trap there that will ensure all teleportation is redirected to the dungeon cells if you don't have both a physical token and a password. Therefore, we use the memory erasure spell to erase all their memories for working for us, and then Teleport them to an inn in an inhabited city within Teleport-range with their pay and items."

He leans forward on the bench.

"And schemes? What sort of schemes? I am very interested in schemes."

"You've put all that effort into letting people stop working for you and leave?  That's admirable!  That was one of the insights that's at the core of modern Ev... though it's leaving me concerned about what other nations in your world are doing?"

"Hmm, taking that long makes it a lot more difficult.  I was imagining you could sneak into places and change people's memories so they wouldn't see you, or wouldn't see your friends...  You could use it for setting up games and then erasing people's memories of the summaries, though that'd be elaborate unless the spell is really common...  And of course it'd be really bad if some utopian gets ahold of the ten-year version."