"You won't, you know." She gestures at him with her drink. "Get your life back. Think about it, hon. Say you clear your name, go right back where you started... do you really think you're going to be content there? You can't hide from this one - even if you cut out the memories, the magic won't hide from you. Your soul hungers for it and it won't ever be satiated. Maybe you can have a semblance of it back, but it'll never be the same. Maybe that's enough for you, though - I'm a mind reader, not a soothsayer."

Kendra, the Kendra in his dreams, continues to croon hauntingly.

"One thing's for sure, that girl's got you spun around tight. In different circumstances I could show you how to enter her soul and see whatever deep, dark secrets she has hidden. That's a thing I did, back when I could reach the world. Sadly, all I can tell you now is based on what I saw when I met you."

Beleth looks at him quietly, her dress shifting as she does.

"We can fall in love," she says, a little distant. "Our relationships are torrid. Sometimes, they begin and end in moments. Sometimes, it's hate so intense sex is sure to follow. We even have a word for a friend who keeps two other friends from destructively cycling back and forth between hate-sex and love-sex."

Her long nails rest on his wrist, turning him from Kendra for now. "I can teach you almost everything there is to know about your magic, at least from the time we met." She raises the hand and brushes her mark under his sleeve. "You can call me for more."

"Oh, easily. We call that the Practice of Compelling, and it's the simplest form of manipulative magic there is, though if the intent is strong it may require Ruling, both of which you're capable of - not the newt part, you aren't remotely capable of that right now. You'd need to unlock the mysteries of the Arcanum of Life further than you have to transform someone. No, you're a Disciple of Space, an Apprentice of Mind, and an Initiate of Life - they're rough categories defining your potential with each Arcana."

It's a dream, that's quite easy with how lucid he's become. He never used to be able to dream like this, but Awakening seems to have popped him wide open.

She laughs. "Slow down, cowboy - one at a time: You can totally change other people. That trick with the beast claws was easier back home because we're more liberated up there in general, like a dream only real. You can change your hair color right now, but your age and facial appearance are a little beyond you right now. You could do more, and - currently, you can't look like Kendra, but with practice you could. It would be pretty substantial - depending on how good you were, you could learn to do surface features like the face, skin, breasts and a vagina and the like and then progress to fully functional transformations. It would last as long as you could hang it, which could be permanent or a day or an hour or minutes or less. If you looked like someone else enough it might just confuse them, or it might trigger Paradox, which is the Abyss biting back at you, not resonance, which is spiritual sympathy found in places and people."

She smirks.

"Really? What you need to learn are the Practices. With those, you can improvise potentially anything."

"Don't get demanding, either." She reaches out and flicks his ear. "I may be a little mental image embedded into your mind, but I've got my pride. Still, yes, I quite agree."

"There are thirteen practices, each one describes a basic magical operation. It's quite simple, really - you begin by visualizing the task you wish to perform, which will generate a complete idea in your soul. This idea is what we term an Imago, and it is distinct from thoughts in the mind because it is a function of your higher self. Then you draw on your Watchtower to form a connection to the Supernal realms - that's fairly instinctive, you don't even really need to think about it unless you're drawing from another tower. Yours governs the Arcana of Mind and Space, but there are 4 other towers each ruling a different one. When you draw on Life, you need to exercise mana - a little piece of Supernal grace bound up in your soul or found in the world - to establish a connection from your tower to the Watchtower of the Singing Stone in the Primal Wild. Mind and Space magic is quite instinctive.

"The first three practices are the simplest - Knowing, Unveiling, and Compelling. They're the first things you learn as an initiate to the mysteries and secrets of an Arcanum, and you'll find that you can exercise them instinctively for the ones that you already know. This is because of what you learned in the Supernal realms. For a demon like myself, these actions are complete instinct, with no real barriers, because I am unbounded and unrestricted within my expertise - the Lie is that you aren't. Learning the mysteries peels that Lie away, and teaches you that you are powerful.

"Knowing is the practice of channeling divine understanding - ie, you can touch or look at a person and know what they're thinking, you can learn facts about their minds, and the same is with Space. You can judge distances, read the connections between people and things, know where to find things. The Practice of Knowing channeled through your knowledge of Life can tell you someone's health, whether or not they're transformed, so on.

"Unveiling is the practice of revealing hidden things and changing how you perceive the world. This is distinct from Knowing in a subtle way - for instance, if you were an Initiate of Forces, you could directly perceive radio waves, or even receive them mentally. For instance, you could recall any memory you've ever experienced in your entire life, even things you weren't consciously concentrating on. You could penetrate disguises and concealing spells.

"Compelling is the practice of - well, nudging." She smirks. "It's the art of subtle change, of poking things to be a little worse, or better, or to do things they might have done but didn't. With Mind you could make a thirsty guard go for a drink, or split your thoughts so that you could do completely separate mental tasks at the same time with no barrier. You can shorten the distance between two points for yourself or make it seem like forever for someone else."

She fetches a new drink.

"After that, a trainee is expected to master the practices of Ruling, Shielding, and Veiling. One who has demonstrated mastery of all 3 is called an Apprentice, someone actually competent in the art - more or less.

"Ruling is like Compelling, but it takes what are suggestions and makes them commands. One who Rules Matter could shape it with her mind into any shape imaginable, while one who Rules Space could open a window to see and hear a distant location. One who practices the art of Ruling through Mind may control people's emotions - even give them commands that must be obeyed. With Space, you can even walk through doors as if they were open and remove cuffs with a thought.

"Veiling is the opposite of Unveiling, surprisingly enough. After learning to reveal things, you learn how to hide them. One of the best uses of Mind is in making yourself inconspicuous to any and all minds, even through cameras. You can hide a fire's heat with Forces, make someone lose all sense of Time, make a building impossible to notice, hide a door with Space. You can even shield yourself from aging.

"Shielding is, of course, the art of protection. You can shield your mind from external influence, prevent people from teleporting into a space, protect people from disease, use Forces to shield someone from fire."

She makes symbols appear in the air with each practice, ones that taunt him with understanding, as though he should be able to read them.

"After that, you're expected to learn the Practices of Weaving, Fraying, and Perfecting. One who masters all three is called a Disciple of that Arcanum.

"Weaving is like Ruling, but with a key difference - Ruling cannot alter things fundamentally. An animal can be commanded, but not made stronger or fiercer. Think of objects in the world as patterns of threads made out of different things - ruling lets you move those patterns around, stretch them, but doesn't let you really change them. Weaving throws that out the window - you can start altering things, within limits. It isn't Patterning, after all. It can alter nearly any property of an object, and the limits may surprise you - man into woman, solid steel turned to liquid, a few minutes of Time can be rewritten. You can delve deep into their subconscious and find memories you can't reach from the surface with ruling. You can also use your phenomena to hurt people, though sometimes that's doable with Fraying, too.

"Fraying is the practice of breaking Patterns, or at least damaging them. You can tear people's sanity, confuse them. You can - and, I see, already have - opened up a portal between two points by tearing at the Lie of distance. You can also combine two places, layering them in ways that are nonobvious to people who can't perceive Space as you can. You can erode the barrier between worlds, damp a fire, sap strength.

"Perfecting is the art of taking Patterns and hammering out their imperfections. It heals and strengthens - Life Perfecting heals people, or makes them stronger. You can make yourself literally more intelligent than any normal human being on the planet with Mind. Matter can make a machine run perfectly without wear and tear, or make it run better in general. Fates can altered from minor to earth-shattering destinies. You can clear your mind for perfect thought, or have a perfect sleep with Mind - or remove the need for sleep entirely. Or you could, if you were a Disciple of Mind~

"At this point - we move beyond what you know, to the Adept and the Master levels. Your goals, if you wish to improve your grasp of Space, would be learning the practices of Patterning and Unraveling.

"Like Weaving, Patterning takes Patterns and changes them - but you can do so much more than just mess around with them. You can completely change them, taking all their threads apart and putting them back together in new ways. With Mind, you can send your mind into others and control them, or send your mind through Twilight to view other places remotely, or make hallucinations. You can gain skills you never had by accessing them from the collective unconscious. With Space, you can flagrantly teleport, or make rooms much bigger or smaller than they should be, or redefine down as up, causing things to fall to the sky. With Life, you could turn a man into a beast or a beast into a man - though Mind would be needed if you wanted them to be intelligent. You can turn yourself into living fire with Forces.

"Unraveling tears patterns apart. You could erase the distance between two locations and have them violently slam into one another, like putting a building in a battleship. You could dispel any kind of magic with Prime. You could turn solid iron into rust.

"Once you've mastered the Adept powers, the final rung are the Practices of Making and Unmaking.

"Making allows you to create phenomena ex nihilo - generate new spirits, create fire in the depths of space, dilate time, create whole minds from scratch, create so much energy that you can kill everyone you take offense at. You can cause miracles. With Space? You could even create your own dimension.

"Unmaking is similar, in the opposite direction - obliterate people. Cut places off from the world.

She smiles, and finishes her drink.

"There are more, but such are the secrets of the archmages. I shall tell you nothing of them."

"I've provided you a wealth of Mind and Space tutorials you can access with unveiling Mind spells. Be a good way to practice."

The demon smiles. "Don't you forget me, and our promise. Good morning."

Kip snaps awake so quickly that it's disorienting. For a moment, he wonders if it wasa dream, but nope - he's in a firm cot, still wearing his rumpled clothing.

Kendra sleeps in the queen, peaceful and beautiful, hair falling across her face. He remembers the one and only time he woke up next to her like that before.

He remembers a lot if he dares.

(So a quick tutorial here:

You're only trying to refresh one memory, but if it mattered, the Primary Factor is Potency, and you automatically gain levels in the Primary Factor equal to your dots in the Arcanum (so 2 - good to refresh two memories per casting.) No duration or scale is required, but if you needed to you could reduce your dice pool by 2 for a level of potency, duration, or scale.

This is a Mind 1 effect (comparable to Perfect Memory) and you have Mind 2. You gain 1 reach + 1 per dot you have higher than the spell.
You need to spend 1 reach to cast instantly, otherwise it takes a ritual (the time of which is a factor based on Gnosis, currently 3 hours for you. Rituals can be repeated to offer additional bonuses, not no need for that here.)
Reach can be spent on other things, like to cast at sensory distance (though you can also throw spells), to make potency, duration, or scale advanced (advanced potency is harder to dispel, advanced duration lasts a LOT longer, advanced scale can effect a whole bunch of targets.)

Exceeding your free Reach exposes you to the Abyss, adding Paradox, but you're not worried about that here. Having a Dedicated Tool is useful here as a way to reduce Paradox or get more dice.

Finally, you roll Gnosis + Mind.
Really, this is all you need to do, I'm just showing you the process.)

Kip continues to focus on the memory, hoping that perhaps focusing on the item that belonged to Kendra would aid in clarifying anything -- or, perhaps, simply show him something new. This was about exploring his abilities, after all. Just... he'd need to know when to back away to keep things 'respectful'.

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...now that he examines the second memory more closely, he does see that his employee card (with that RFID tag to get him into secure parts of the building) is missing from its usual spot on the dresser.

Up bright and early is Protea. The stately blond woman is brushing at her plants with her fingers. He feels the faint distortion he's come to associate with magic as they brighten and thicken, growing in healthy and large.

"Good morning, Kip. I hope your sleep was well."

"I do! A little Life keeps them free of parasites and growing without crowding. The personal touch feels very rewarding. I like projects I can work on a bit every day."

She goes over to the table, sitting down. "We're obliged to give a meal if asked before you leave. For most, this is usually fulfilled via McDonald's, but you're in luck, because my husband worked through college as a chef in a Japanese restaurant, and though he abandoned his degree and the part-time job to pursue magic, he still enjoys cooking. He's getting some things fresh now."

"I was a doctor. I pursued fascinating cases, until they pursued me in turn. In mastering them, I mastered myself, and awoke to the Primal Wild. After I got home I infuriated my family by quitting my job, marrying outside my 'race,' and disappearing, because I am no longer bound to their world. I still visit local clinics and hospitals and dispense miracles on the sly."

"Because the Lie is strengthened in numbers. It's easy to pull in one or two Sleepers, or to disseminate Fallen magical knowledge such that those who pursue it will shake themselves into a state of half-waking - Sleepwalkers, as we call them - but to stir any great number? Impossible."

Protea looks up as her husband arrives, going to give him a welcoming kiss before returning. He goes into the kitchen to get started.

"We have laws, but by and large they're focused around the big issues - murder, theft of magical resources, enslavement, that sort of thing. Otherwise, all other disputes are handled via contracts, the Duel Arcane, or the Precept of Nemesis."