[It's never too soon to be paranoid.]

I'd be more keen on knowing if people have seen similar somethings.

Materia? I'm not sure I know what that is.

There are items you can use to use magic? Like...medallions? That sort of thing?

...that's a lot more complicated than I was thinking.

I feel like I need a dictionary just to understand what you just said.

...yeah, I guess so. I've never actually met a magus in my world, but I've heard of them. They keep to themselves for the most part, or at least that's my assumption.

Only stories, and you never know which parts of those are real and which are just hearsay.

Well, there are stories of people who used to be able to commune with the Earth, who could weave the ley lines of magic into different patterns. They say some people are born with the ability to sense the currents of energy moving through nature and shaping them to their will. Maybe they can, like I said, if they exist, they really don't like outsiders.

...I mean, I'm sure they do. I've never found a story that didn't have some sort of basis in fact, but...it's like they've gone to ground.

Yeah? We are pretty good at making a muck of it, it's true.

For what it's worth, I don't think it's that weird. I touch things and read the imprints people leave on them. Who am I to judge?

Probably not quite as useful as having a conversation with the planet itself, though I wonder what it sounds like. "Hey, wanker, don't toss your refuse down there. Put it in the sodding rubbish bin"?

Barrett sounds like my kind of bloke.

[There's a smirk in his voice before he moves on.]

That sounds...sad.

[He chuckles.] That sounds like a diplomatic description.