"Oooh. A-are they, like, super exclusive and elite and don't want to talk to anyone or can I meet them—"

"Haven't ever really talked to them myself, but I suppose there's no harm in trying."

"There could be, if they h-have the power to have me, erm, fired or something."

"I really doubt they do... Other than the ability that anyone our level has to get you in trouble, I guess."

"Okay!" he says brightly and goes over there.

They don't react much to him just approaching. There's only about six people in the group, and after a bit there's a lull in conversation. One notices Sadde then, and asks "Can I help you?"

"Hi! Maybe! I-I'm new and—generally curious."

"Welcome, then. Good luck with work. What were you curious about?"

"Oh, m-magic in general, and what you guys work with here—there isn't any magic back home."

"We mostly test the theories that the mathematicians put out, really. There's also a bit of experimenting with ritual and runic magic - we think the right combination of runes can strengthen the ships some, with all the advantages attendant on that... And ritual magic is seriously underused. You know Madeza's never been successfully invaded, or suffered a natural disaster? They're the only ones using ritual magic at any scale, and they're not stretching it."

"I didn't know that! That's really interesting. What's ritual magic like?" He's gonna get to the point eventually but seriously he just has to nerd.

"It's - a fairly broad category. Structured magic that isn't written is the best quick explanation. Stuff that involves chants, mostly, though there's some that involves movements or herbs or what-have-you. Pretty common type, but most of it's origin-locked. Madezan ritual magic is grand-scale - it's part of their religion, see, and participating in the largest rituals is a citizenship requirement unless you get an exemption. Their ritual magic usually invokes their gods, though it's a matter of continued debate whether anyone's actually listening. An example is Madeza's nation-wide protections, which are applied every fifty-two years, and that involves dowsing all the fires in the nation, magically relighting a central fire at the oldest temple, then relighting the other temple fires with branches from that fire, then relighting people's hearths from the temple fires. I'm not sure why having magical fires protects the nation - 'there's a deity with an interesting sense of aesthetics' seems to be as good an explanation as any."

"...wow. Does it work anywhere else?"

"Theirs has - cultural momentum. You wouldn't be able to convince everyone in a nation to not have so much as a lit candle elsewhere. The rituals will also annoyingly fail to work if you're doing them for scientific reasons, presumably because being analyzed annoys the deities in question. But the smaller rituals work just fine for converts, and there's Madezan rituals that don't call on assorted spirits that work for anyone. And the deities appear to be able to listen outside of Madeza's island."

"Do people invent rituals? How do they work?"

"We do, some. The universities do. And... That'd be an entire university class. Or several. Many rituals work on the wider flow of magic in the world, or call on more powerful spirits to intercede and do magic on your behalf. Many affect probability in some way."

He nods. "Maybe I'll go to a university someday..."

"I'd recommend it, if you want to get serious about studying magic. There's scholarships for most of them, if you can't afford it, and working here would look good when applying to a program."

He grins. "So do you know the lord well...?" 

"Not very, though he's more involved in our work than the other divisions. He's a reclusive sort, doesn't talk about himself much. Genius at magic, though, especially rituals."

"Is it common where he's from?"

"Not sure. Don't know where he's from originally."

He nods. "Do you know why he's become so interested in this stuff lately, this... leyline stuff? It's fascinating, nothing like anything I'd ever seen..."

Shrug. "He has his moods. Though ley-research has been big lately, and Bajilda's gotten a few breakthroughs, even if they're mostly unrelated to our angle."

"They are?"