"Well, right now, it doesn't, mostly," Rita admits. "Super-summarized, formulas require an operating medium. That was a natural phenomona called Aer-" - Somehow, the spelling is obviously audible - "- which could power various effects. It also depended on something called a Blastia, which required a special 'core' and then you encoded the formula onto a surrounding device."

"Skipping the details, Blastia cores no longer exist, and almost all Aer is converted to Mana thanks to... Well, long story. I was involved. Mana-based formulas are an entirely new research... Aaaand Mana doesn't exist here. Not in the same way, at least. I should still be able to use the sash to strike things, but that's about it. Not precisely optimal, but what can you do other than develop entirely new methods of processing formulae?"