Raine took a few seconds picking through the newly-learned terminology. "A shadow within a plane made of shadows might be easily lost," she offered, a little absently. In the unlikely event that Bakura felt talkative, she would have to query him on this topic, too. "Or, perhaps, the ka as a creature in this case becomes like a shadow cast by the person...? Hm. I wonder why he chose ba as comparison for mana, instead -- vital essence sounds closer, as far as comparisons go, but..."

She fell silent there, thoughts directed inward. Mana was necessary for life as their world knew it, and each and every person had it. It was possible, if ill-advised, to completely exhaust your mana, and the consequence was usually death, but on the one occasion she had seen it occur, the unique self had not gone with it. But in the case of those who had been absorbed by exspheres-- those took both. They must, or speaking to Alicia would have been impossible. Mithos' survival would have been impossible. "I think," she said aloud, slowly, "mana must be closer to ka, as uniqueness and a concept of self is not necessarily attached-- but exspheres likely feed on ba as well, or entrap it as a result." And she shook her head. "But that's beside the point, for now." She'd think on it later. "It's true that the palace has some sort of powerful magic in it, and the results of its corruption speak for themselves. Eva also said she had needed to move them, didn't she? Perhaps that, too, had an effect."