universal star visitor brilliant start!

[incanted]

Eventually Bella and Lexi go to bed - they have to coordinate this; Bella's a reasonably sound sleeper but Lexi's not, so if Bella goes to sleep first Lexi won't be able to drop off with all the random nouns and if Bella goes to sleep second Lexi will wake up when she's trying to sneak around. They get up, and they get ready for school.

+Morning, Brilliance,+ says Bella while she's brushing her teeth.

Comments

[cardistry]

"Guess so!" says Brilliance.

[incanted]

"Awesome!"

[cardistry]

Brilliance glimmers. It's much more visually obvious in staff form.

[incanted]

"You think I could pull off a sweet potato yet or should we do some more intermediate stuff?"

[cardistry]

"Try conjuring something else first," he says. "Something with a really simple structure. Like, I don't know, a grain of sand?"

[incanted]

"Okay." Bella picks up a grain of green sand, peers intently at it, and then incants: "I command a new grain of green sand to come to exist."

[cardistry]

A new grain of green sand comes to exist.

In the moment that it does so, Bella is aware of its entire structure down to the molecular level.

[incanted]

"Whoa, that is a rush," breathes Bella.

[cardistry]

"Seriously!" says Brilliance.

[incanted]

"How much mana does it take to make brand new sand out of nowhere? Are we going to - experience whatever happens when one runs out of mana, if I try to make an entire potato?"

[cardistry]

"New sand didn't take that much," says Brilliance. "We're still way above half. I'm not actually sure about the potato."

[incanted]

"So maybe I should try - say, a kernel of corn first? Is it a size thing or a complexity thing, would filling a bowl with sugar be easier because it's molecularly pretty simple? I think?"

[cardistry]

"I'm not totally sure," he says. "I think that once you've got the hang of doing one of something, scaling it up to a bunch doesn't take nearly as much mana. But I'm not sure how much the size of the first thing factors into it."

[incanted]

"...So, maybe a single sugar crystal."

[cardistry]

"Try it and see!"

[incanted]

Bella commands a sugar crystal to exist just like she did the sand.

[cardistry]

This one is a somewhat harder to envision all at once. But the conjuration is successful.

[incanted]

"How're we on mana?" Pause. "Can we just make me able to directly sense that or do I have to pester you every time I want to know?"

[cardistry]

"You have to pester me," he says apologetically. "You might get a sense for it yourself someday, or you might not, I'm not really sure. Anyway, we're still above half, but we're getting there."

[incanted]

"Maybe better to save the kernel of corn for another time, then?"

[cardistry]

"Yeah, maybe."

[incanted]

"Mkay." Bella kicks off the ground again. "God I love flying."

[cardistry]

Brilliance laughs.

[incanted]

Zoom! Zoooooooom! Zoom.

[cardistry]

"Wheeeeeee!"