"Okay. If you want to enter the temple-guild you hafta go through the main gate, it's over there."

"I wasn't going to go in. How do mages work?"

"Uh, so, they take kids and dip 'em in the magic fountains and the kids get powers - there's an associated religion but as far as I can tell it's as unsubstantiated as the Earth ones? And the powers vary but they come with serious drawbacks, usually like mindfuckery of some kind. And these places spring up around a godspring and sell mage services and take care of the mages who are fucked up from having done too much magic."

"Fucked up how?"

"I'm just security, sorry, dunno. Like, they lose their memory, or they lose all their senses, stuff like that?"

"Yikes."

"Yeah it's kinda fucked up."

"Why's it have to be kids?"

Shrug. 

"And there are more springs? I didn't realize there were a bunch of them, maybe I should check some more for my friend before I just park at one."

"Nah, this is the only one in Helar, they're pretty spaced out."

"Oh, like how far?"

"Dunno, I think there's like a hundred in the whole world?"

Nod. "What do the mages here do?"

"Uh, I think they've got white, green, silver, and bronze, here? Whites do healing, greens do - conditioning? Like, giving you instincts or changing how averse you feel to something, stuff like that. Dunno what the green drawback is, the white drawback is that their immune system's really weak and they're sick their whole lives and then die young. No idea how the other two work."

Nod. "If my friend doesn't find me here I'll want to check other landmarks, what else is there around here?"

"No idea, sorry, I don't leave the premises. You could ask at the dot?"

"Thanks."

She "waits" for another hour, writing things down and looking plausibly impatient, and then takes off again. Lands by a random person not in one of the mage uniforms, asks if they've seen her friend, he's yea high doesn't look at all local he's an angel too, he said he was going to find somewhere to learn things about mages but the Temple-Guild doesn't have him?

They haven't seen her friend and have no idea where aside from a temple-guild or a dot one might learn about mages. Someone suggests she could look it up online.

Gosh where does she do that.

...on a phone? Or at a dot?

Right of course thanks it's just she was so tired of all the singing but her friend is probably at a dot off she goes.

Miscellaneous additional people ask about her medical qualifications.

She's very sorry but she doesn't have any. Where does she look things up online?

Those big glowy screens over there! Maybe it's supposed to be obvious how to operate them.