Back in her room, she felt slightly competent. She'd gone outside to play with basic flapping every time her Mana refilled, and learned a bit about the city's districts and streets, and knew a few of the skills she ought to pick up. Apparently she needed to cash in three abilities with the same underlying stat to raise that stat, which sort of raised the floor for everything she did with it. And she could do that once a season including now, so there was an incentive to get the bonus right away. Three of the stats had direct effects on the Health number and so on. She had a ton of possibilities and the best way to start was to learn all the things and qualify for something good.

As for that backpack, she tried putting things into it to test her theory, from years of fantasy gaming, that it was a pocket dimension. It wasn't... but whatever she put in there weighed practically nothing. Aha, that's what it does!

She owned a key to the basement. Though the post office was closed for the night, the Human employee and one of the Aves had tiny bedrooms there. She crept down and performed an experiment, using the package-weighing scale to measure the bag empty versus containing a lead weight. Eighty-five percent weight reduction! Wow. She barely even knew how magic worked or what it could do -- yet.

#

The next day she took up the job of delivery bird again. She couldn't do the long flights that some Aves could -- the Two Hoots employees a few older birds for that -- but practiced constantly. She flapped and trotted along with the Centaur boy, Newroot, for one trip that helped her learn a common route across the Starry River and south to the city's downstream gate.

To her surprise, there was some kind of magical water purification station there. This district was called the Purity for that reason. Mostly little shops in that area that smelled of clean air and sizzling food.

Her shiny grey, hooved companion clip-clopped pleasantly along the cobblestone streets. "I wish I could fly."

"I'm sure you get to do some cool things too. You must be an amazing runner."

"You should see me outside the walls. When I have my birthday I'm going to go right for some Stamina bonuses."

"Race you to the dropoff point, Newroot."

"Ha, I'll give you a head start!"

#

"You want to join the Knowledge Society?" asked Aunt Tradewind over dinner at the Shrike.

"They have books! I need to learn as much as I can, especially to be a good Mage."

She feather-smiled and answered, "I suppose it's best to let you try different things and see if you really take to scholarship. You don't seem to have done any cooking lately; are you sure you don't want to pester the chefs again?"

Selen's actual academic background was in chemistry. As a graduate student in a university that nobody around here had heard of. Although she'd gotten interested in the field partly because of cooking, she hadn't made anything more advanced than a cake in years.

"It's time for me to try something different," she said. Although it might be helpful to watch local cooking, a little, just to be on the same page about how things boiled and baked and chilled in this world. "Might ask occasionally though. What about magic lessons?"

"Come to the shop after we eat."

Tradewind's shop was near the tower, and more modern in layout than she expected: not an outdoor-facing shop counter where someone asked what you wanted, but a big room you could walk into and browse. Or gawk at, in her case. Crystals with a white or soft aquamarine glow lit the place and were also on sale. Jars held items like "goblin ears" and "pixie dust" along with bottles of multicolored liquid and amulets of carved wood and a few books.

"What are you so cheery about?" asked Tradewind, ruffling Selen's neck feathers.

"My aunt runs a magic shop!"

"Ha, you call this knickknack stand a magic store? Mind your wings; don't knock that over!"

Selen had bumped into a rack of bottles, though really they were strapped in place. "So, you would learn magic? What for? Is it just your latest fancy or do you dream about smiting your enemies?"

"Good question." Selen scuffed one foot on the wooden floor. "All of it's a novelty. But I want to master the flight spell, and go on to see what I can discover, what magic can do."

"That's going to mean a Mage Guild apprenticeship, if you go that far. They work you hard for years. As non-members we can teach you the basics but if you're serious and want to move on to a second level, you'll need to be more serious and specific. And don't tell them you want to be one of those adventurers, like your Uncle Meteor did."

"I haven't seen Meteor around lately."

"Still on garrison duty in the west, I assume. Don't worry. So. Pay attention." She held her talons together and focused. "What element is this?"

Selen stared at the empty space. "I don't see anything."

"You do have a level in this; I can't make it any more obvious without blowing up the shop."

Faint sparks stood out, but not real ones. These must be the bits of Mana she'd learned to gather, seen with the eyes but not along the normal spectrum. She gingerly reached out with one hand and the spell reacted, sticking to her and making her scaly skin prickle. "Feels like static electricity."

"Static what?"

"Ah... lightning?"

"Right. Since you tuned what you were casting to air last time, this one's a little different. Show me your wind-attuned Mana. But let's try that outdoors."

The technique was almost the same as Bluemoon's. Selen was gathering energy between her hands from somewhere_ as though letting water trickle from a faucet. The process was slow but began to be visible with the help of her new Mage level, as ghostly off-white wind. "Like this, and then I can use this on my wings."

"Instead, hold that with one hand, then feel the lightning aspect here." Tradewind demonstrated a tiny finger-cage of sparks.