Ink smiled as she took hold of her drink again, sipping the frothy liquid and regarding Lara from behind her glasses as the other woman thanked her. "Don't worry about it, honey. I'm always happy to pass along some pointers. And helping cute girls is usually pretty rewarding," she said as she leaned back in her chair, one leg crossed over the other. "You can thank me by coming back next time you're out on the town. I like seeing regulars."<br/><br/>She looked thoughtful for a moment as Lara asked about what Ink thought she should and shouldn't attempt. "Well. Every spell is associated with an element. It's usually pretty easy to know which ones are going to be dangerous just by knowing what element they're rooted in. Anything in fire is going to be hard to control and usually dangerous. I'd saw water is the most calm element, best for beginners. Then there's some spells that sort of straddle the line between multiple elements. For example, growing plants is both water and earth based. You have to have a certain resonance with both to be able to do it correctly. A lot more goes into growing a plant than you think. Anything involving biological metabolic processes is going to take a lot of energy and raw materials. You can't make something from nothing, after all. When I conjure things, I'm taking them from somewhere else."<br/><br/>She removed her glasses. "These were on my bedside table but I conjured them here. I didn't make them. I could have, but I would have had to make them OUT of something else. A plant needs nutrients and energy to convert them into matter to make themselves grow. You need the materials and the ability to manipulate the plant to do what you want with them. And if you try to do something similar in a more complex organism, you WILL need a mastery of fire as well and that can lead to all kinds of disasters. Like if you wanted a giant cat. You could use the right materials to make the cat grow really large but if you can't control it... well, best case? You get a really large mutant creature that you wouldn't want as a pet. Worst case? It basically turns into a bomb..." She fell silent, her expression suggesting that that scenario was far too specific not to have been part of her own experience.