[ Matt follows the movement of Gavial's foot, intrigued as she nudges at the staff. He'd assumed it was magical in nature--he's used similar tools himself, though if he has a spellcasting focus now, it's probably his own body. ]

Oripathy, [ Matt repeats curiously. He hears it like gold, and thinks unavoidably of alchemy. The ancient alchemists believed in transformation of more than lead. They were doctors, philosophers; they believed in perfection of the body and the soul. ] That's ... not totally unlike how people view magic back home. Preternatural types in general. They see it as like, there's all these people wandering around with largely unexplained, definitely volatile, seemingly unlimited powers, and there's a lot of suspicion, to put it nicely.