"Not at all. Now, this isn't quite a proper place for a meeting, especially with my old bones. My house is attached to the temple, if you all want to meet there."

"I would be honored to. I shall return shortly with them."

"Very well, then."

She turns to talk with some of the others, mostly asking them to return to their days, and then heads back to her home. The temple and attached house are clearly visible, at the highest point in the village, on a small stone prominence. They're not quite grand, but they're the closest the village has.

They return shortly. Sofia's son looks too old to be her offspring, but all of them look around 18.

"Do you have some sort of anti-aging magic," the woman asks curiously, "Or is it just a difference in species? Someone with a son that age would look much older, around here."

"Ah, shifting resets your age as long you have two forms to change back and forth. Is this entire world slowly dying?"

"Adam!" Sofia admonishes.

"Most species age, yes, and immortality magic is relatively rare. Most of it blood-locked." She sounds amused, at least.

"Well, to be fair we do age. We just age back." Says Adam's father. "Is the local magic typically 'blood-locked' as you say?"

"Well, depends on how you define 'most.' Most types are limited to bloodlines, or people from a certain world, but the magic most people use generally isn't. The magic I use is worship-locked - anyone who follows our religion and knows the rituals can use it."

"It's unlike all of our magic that is tied to our shapes. Which would be blood-locked, except one can acquire shapes at the pools."

"Pools?"

"The source of shapes are pools with magical water that painfully reshape your body. Though, shapes are hereditary once you have them."

"There's places with magic water, but I haven't heard of anything quite like that, and I traveled in my youth pretty far. If those pools work for any species, and we ever figure out how to get between worlds on purpose, your world can probably expect some tourism - a bit of pain isn't much, for immortality."

"It would increase demand and they hurt a lot, but for the sake of people stop dying it would be a good trade off. ...There is a simple test to figure out if a pool would work for your species. It would hurt like touching a candle..."

Amused: "That's not much at all. Of course, mine isn't the only species, but it is the most common around here. How does this test work?"

"I have a category of magic power called infusing. I know how to use it to tell if someone is capable of acquiring a shape or not - animals and people that already lost the shape slow up as a negative."

He offers his hand and creates a silvery spark between his fingers. "Just touch it for a second."

She does, without hesitation.

The pain is comparable to that of a candle, but there is a different quality to it.

"Yeah, she is compatible."

Smile. "Of course, getting there's a problem."

"Yes... We have a terrific teleporter that belongs to our guild, but she never evinced the possibility to move people this far. And she is back home and they might not figure out what happened to us for awhile."

"As far as I know, the only thing stopping us from jumping worlds is building a big enough - or strong enough - ley-ship. Though I'm not an engineer, and it's been decades now since I've traveled. But everyone who comes through seems confident that it's just a breakthrough away."

"That is not unusual among engineers, but we might be able to help. My other magic gift is being a good inventor. ...Do you know where we would be able to learn more about ley-ships or the general concept?"

"And ways we can sustain ourselves?"

"For learning, there's the continent proper. We're off the coast of the Hayadi region, there's the university in Huicoa, and there's the capital, which would probably be interested in hearing about your world and abilities. For sustaining yourselves, I'd heard you can generally make a bit by letting the folks at the university study a novel magic type. Plus the capital might fund you if they think you'll be helpful with research."