Ehail nods.

"So tell me about your world," Libby suggests. "Right now all I know is that it has four houses full of most-of-dragons, and a moon with atmosphere."

"Most people aren't dragons or - shrens, that's the word for the most-of-dragons - most people are other things instead. There's a very high dragon infant mortality rate and they intermarry a lot. There's humans, like you, and some other things. Um. There's air everywhere? If that's your planet, it looks round from here; ours is square. There are three major continents on it unless you count Mekand in which case there are four."

"That's our planet," Libby confirms. "Earth. It's a sphere, plus details. All of the planets in this universe are spheres with details, as far as I know."

"Oh. I suppose that would work all right as long as they're big enough. And there's several kinds of magic. I do wizardry, which anybody can learn - from there, anyway, I don't know if you could. And some people are born lights, or sorcerers, or with the potential to become mages, and some people learn witchcraft, and there are species that can do specific kinds of magic too. Like dragons and what we do."

"I will be fascinated to see all of these kinds of magic," says Lazarus. "What do they do, exactly?"

"Um, well, you can see dragon magic. I'm in the blue group. We get extra shapeshifting slots. The green group is empaths, and the red group is better with fire, and the white group at flying - the shrens from those groups get a particularly sour deal - and the black group has better senses, and the violet group is effectively aquatic. Wizardy can do most things. I do it for household maintenance kinds of stuff, usually. Sorcerers are - telekinetic, and mages once they're activated each control an element, and lights are healers. Witches make potions."

"Hmm, yes," he says. "And I've met a red-group dragon, in Milliways, before. What sorts of potions do witches make?"

"Lots of things - stuff for conditions too small to bother a light about. Or for lights, since they don't work on each other. Shampoo. Birth control. Appetite suppressants. I don't really know much about it."

"I suppose I will have to find and stare at a witch, then," says Lazarus.

"I'm not sure if they'd look different from anyone else. Anyone can be one and they don't even use their channeling capacities."

"It will be interesting to find out!"

"In that case, I suggest we go back to Lazarus's place. Someone is going to need to open a door eventually if we want to find Milliways again, and I notice a distinct lack of those up here."

Ehail nods.

And they are back in Lazarus's apartment.

"Hello Kolya I went to the moon!" says Lazarus, beaming. There is no response, but this doesn't seem to perturb him.

Libby has already discovered, in dealing with the double handful of sevens she collected earlier, that a single coin can apply safety to many more of its own level. It won't be a problem. She might ask for an extra six and an extra seven to get up to that level in the first place, but she won't need more than that, in an absolute sense.

Ehail picks up the Dostoevsky she was looking at before again.

"I think I'll go tell Chris what an interesting afternoon I've just had," says Libby. "If you find Milliways, call me. I'll do likewise."

"Okay," says Lazarus.

And away she goes.