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It came out of nowhere.
Felix was flying through the shattered skies, enjoying the sights of the many portals, taking the occasional selfie. Then the threads of energy formed between the portals. Felix almost flew straight into one. That kind of thing never happened. And the threads multiplied and filled the air until one...
...Felix now is somewhere else entirely no idea how he got here. While flying through the wilderness the pain starts and eventually culminates with a blood-covered pebble coming out of his mouth. Which was only supposed to happen if Felix was somewhere else so far that the magic that allows his immortality couldn't reach and the only possible place like this would be another universe entirely.
An hour, he gives himself that much time and uses it, but by then Felix decides that crying isn't useful anymore no matter how much he wants to.
Instead Felix searches for civilization, since he is going to stay in this world for the foreseeable future.
"Okay. What else can you tell me about your world? Let's start with your kind of witch?"
"Ehm, only girls, mostly random, pretty rare but not that rare, magic starts when you're ten or eleven and gets weaker when you get old or sometimes if you get hurt wrong. All of us can fly on brooms or better than that not-brooms that are specially shaped for it. All of us can do shields and energy blasts. Then everyone gets a special magic. Mine is very high endurance."
The blond one says, "You saw my lightning."
The navigator whispers. "Stealth."
"Oh, that is an interestingly well-rounded power pool. Sounds stronger than anything in my world that isn't a Skymage, Witch-Queen or a very well-trained magician."
"Oh yeah, they assemble teams for roundedness. There's all sorts. Making geases, healers, cooking magic, transforming people, telekinesis, translators, teleporters, only a handful of oracles for the whole world and we have one of the best!"
"I'm mean the basic power set with mobility, attack, defense, extra."
"What is cooking magic?"
"I think they're just magically good at cooking, everything they make turns out super delicious and nutritious maybe because there's magic in it. I think there was an academic debate over whether the stuff cooking-witches make counted as magic items and it was eventually decided that they don't."
"Oh, okay. Do you have any other sort of magic? My universe has at least a hundred types of magical person and things. Most are not really useful against the neuroi."
"Eh, no, it's just Witches and Neuroi. If they're even magic and not ridiculously advanced science or something."
"It looked like something out of science-fiction... which is a genre that didn't exist until the 19th I think. I meant it looked like something of advanced science, but of course it could just look like that."
"Hmmmmmmm. Well! What kind of technology do you know? Communication stuff would be a good start! Cut telegraph lines can ruin everyone's week."
"I have things better than telegraphs... which I'm surprised you do have, since I think they are invented around the 1800's? Most communication works through radio, which is a kind of invisible light. And we use towers that transmit and things called satellites that go so high up in the sky that they float. There are much better weapons too."
"Witches are living weapons but if we don't know where the Neuroi is we can't kill it. More stable bombs woulda been the next thing I asked for. I lost my eyebrows and most of my hair bombing a cruiser class Neuroi once, haha."
"I really need to talk with whoever in charge then. I should be able to at least point some scientists in the right directions to make things like radio and airborne non-magical vehicles."
"I bet they'll love it. I know the UDF pays lots of people to seriously study interesting technology and science ever since things started to get really organized. Trains and telegraphs came from that, so did the Steelwings, and fulminate bombs, and word is we're getting a new kind of uniform in a few months that resists heat better. It's really cool, all this inventing. I don't have the smarts for it and I've got magic besides so I help keep 'em safe."
"The official name is something like 'Mechanically Balanced Witch Combat Vehicle'. Steelwing's easier to say."
Felix flies silently for a few minutes.
"What else can you tell me about the world?"
"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..."
The French woman interrupts, "The nobility's power is battered but not broken by the unity agreements. I am supposed to have my ancestral lands returned if the Neuroi are ever finally defeated. Whether that will actually happen is another question."
"I'm not bitter. I can be worthy of respect and honor just as well without a title. It's why I serve the Defense Force, after all."
"I am a daughter of the Duke of Burgendovie. I say 'my' lands, but truly they belong to my family and not me personally."
Well, this is awkward. Felix doesn't need to deal with this kind of politics right now. Poor, woman though.
"I am sort of nobility. You can't have my kind of magic without getting political power too."
She's either putting on a very good front of not caring, or really believes herself.
'Dragon' takes over again, loud and cheerful. "Yeah, Parts of Africa kinda like that I think. People follow Witches there even if they don't want it."
The coast is visible up ahead. The quiet navigator peers at it, then announces, "Left twelve degrees." The Witches turn.
Yeah. There's an active lighthouse down there, and a sparsely be-housed coastal road with a telegraph wire running alongside, plus what looks like a fishing village in a cove off to the right. There's signs of fire damage, but there are definitely also people living down there.
"Hey Felix if you want me to fend everyone off when we land and give you space I can do that. They'll probably want Copycat to look at you. She can analyze other Witches' magic, sometimes copy it, they throw her at anything weird and new and she says whether or not it's really a cursed person or going to turn into a demon at midnight and eat time or something."