"Indeed I do not. It is a bizarre mystery. I've been kind of hoping that somebody somewhere had a theory that would explain spontaneous interworld travel, but so far no luck."

"Yeah, wizardry only works here, can't explain that with local theory."

"And there's no magic here that does interworld travel besides wizardry?"

"Nope. Unless you count a really limited form which is both a fringe theory and not what happened to you."

"Well, okay, you can't just drop a comment like that and expect me not to ask. Tell me more about this fringe theory."

"Ha. All right, there's a fringe theory that Elcenia's got a nearby, attached, other world whence conjured matter and shapeshifter alternate forms."

"Shapeshifters such as yourself? What's the evidence for or against?"

"Such as dragons, like me, yes, or vampires. It's really technical, do you really want to get into it...?"

"Yes."

"Shapeshifting and conjuration are instantaneous unlike anything that changes an existing object, if I left my other form dormant for a year it will have grown when I assume it again and would still have any objects tucked away with it. However, it's impossible to summon things from it and scrying just reveals that it is very dark wherever my dragon form is."

"Hmm," says Miles. "I wonder if I can help resolve this question. On my way through the dead universe I picked up a kind of magic that lets me analyze the functionality of things. Shapeshifting appears to have a functionality I can analyze."

"...Do go on."

"I don't actually recommend trying to go there and get some for yourself - it takes a long time, it's somewhat uncomfortable, you're not guaranteed results at the end of it, and if something goes wrong with your interworld transport you may end up stuck in a dead universe - but my Sense has been awfully handy so far. I can tell what spells are on me and what they do, I can tell roughly what sorts of magical capabilities a person has, that sort of thing."

"How long, how uncomfortable, and does it interfere with the the interworld transport or is that just a problem you and your mysterious method happened to run into?"

"Nine days local, stuck in a large stone building, unable to eat or drink or sleep, nothing to sit on, not much to do except communicate with the monument, and the monument is not enormously talkative. Then at the end you find out whether or not you passed the test. And I didn't detect anything in the monument that was set on keeping me there, but since I still don't know what sent me there in the first place, I'm not ruling out that there might be an entity with unknown goals and the ability to move people between worlds watching the taieli monument for unknown purposes."

"...You don't look like you recently spent nine days unable to eat or drink or sleep."

"The monument takes care of the physical requirements, but it doesn't take care of how boring it is to spend nine straight days awake in a large empty room with very few interesting features. I happened to be lucky enough to spend most of that time in some kind of weird monument-derived educational trance, but if it decides not to do that for you and you are anything like as easily bored as I am, you may regret going there."

"Oh, I get bored, but I think I could live with nine days upfront to extend the duration of my 'figuring out all the everything' project with some more everything."

"You're also not guaranteed to get the same analytical ability I did even if you get the magic - Senses are unique to the individual and you can't predict what you'll get in advance. I mean, if you still want to try it, I won't try to stop you, I'm just trying to ensure that you're accurately warned."

"I'm not going to run off and do it right now, but I'm strongly considering the possibility."

"Fair enough. Oh, and while you're there don't try to leave the building, there is no air out there and you might die."

"Noted."

"Anyway. How best to go about analyzing shapeshifting, I wonder?"

Kaylo takes a few steps back from the table and turns into a twenty-foot-long bejewelled-looking dragon.

"Huh," says Miles. "That was... that was something. It goes by so fast - can you do it again?"