"It might make sense to imagine the dragons from other worlds as being another species entirely."

"In most reasonable senses, we are," says Elasirae. "As far as I know."

But you look like a dragon! says Pyranir. You have wings and scales and you're not as big as mommy or daddy but I'm not as big as they are either, but I'm still a dragon!

"In Thilanushinyel elves and humans are different species and they're all the same kinds of shapes as each other except for their ears," says Elasirae.

Whaaat? says Pyranir, incredulously. But that's so similar! Are you sure they're not the same species?

"They live in different places and act differently and they can do different kinds of magic when they do magic, and I've only ever heard of one elf and one human who ever managed to have children together, and they only did that after the human one died and was reincarnated as an elf and grew up and married her elf boyfriend."

"It isn't common at all. This was a very special case. She didn't torch - torching wasn't even a thing in our world when it happened - and no other human has ever become an elf when they died, that I know of. But she was very special and she sacrificed her life to save the world, so she got to have a second life as an elf so she could be with the elf she loved."

"I think the reincarnation was a thing that just happened once," he says. "There are a bunch of different kinds of magic in my world that different species can do. Humans can be Wildmages or High Mages, elves can be Elven Mages, unicorns have special unicorn magic, the Endarkened had their own magic but now they're all dead except Aianon and he's different, and the Wild Magic is sort of like a god that oversees it all, but it interacts most with Wildmages and unicorns. Which kinds do you want to know more about?"

"A god is... something like the Wild Magic," says Elasirae, tilting his head and sounding vaguely apologetic about the obvious inadequacy of this explanation. "I'm not sure how to define them. But the Wild Magic in particular is... well, it's sort of like all the magic in the world is collectively a person, and it's very big and knows almost everything and wants to make the world better but it can't do very much except pass messages through unicorns and set Mageprice for Wildmages. My friend Sherial's Bondmate Lissa explains that part much better than I can."

"Mageprice is part of doing one of those kinds of magic," he explains. "When a Wildmage does a spell, the Wild Magic sets a mageprice, and if they want the spell to happen they have to agree to whatever it is. For small spells it's small things, and for bigger spells it's bigger things. But it's usually not paying things like money or treasure; you could think of it as... doing the Wild Magic a favour in exchange for the spell. And whatever the favour is, it's always either something that helps the spell come about by you doing it, or something that helps make the world a little better even if it's not in an important or obvious way, or both."

Ooooo, says Pyranir. That's not so bad, then. I think I like the Wild Magic, if it does nice things like that! Why would the 'Endarkened' all die, then? Wouldn't the Wild Magic send people to help them? Or what about the dragons?

"The Endarkened were mostly evil," Elasirae explains. "They're what everyone else was saving the world from, all the times the world was saved before they were almost all killed. Aianon wasn't evil like the rest of them, so he ran away to a remote island long before that and he and his Bondmate Ansharil, who is a dragon he met on the way, lived there alone together for thousands of years."

Ooooh, says Pyranir, solemnly. That's sad. Do you know if there are any other not-evil Endarkened? Maybe they were like us and had an urge to hoard! Or something.

"The thing the Endarkened seemed to have an urge to do was hurt people in terrible ways," says Elasirae. "Aianon is the only one who wanted not to hurt people in terrible ways, at least the only one I know about. And I don't think there are any more that are still alive, or we probably would have found them by now. I'm sure someone looked."

"Well, unicorn magic is hard to understand if you're not a unicorn," he says. "And elven magic is hard to understand if you're not an elven mage or bonded to one. It can do the most obviously impressive things, though, out of all the other common kinds. An elven mage can raise a stone bridge out of nothing that will stand for thousands of years. It's also sort of impressive that they can make new species of plants, but Aianon can do that too and he seems to be even better at it. Or maybe he just does it more often."

"Aianon makes very pretty plants! On the island where he lived with his Bonded, almost all the plants and animals are ones he made out of the ones that were there when they arrived. It's beautiful there."

"You would probably have to ask Isibel Sarion, if you wanted to visit," says Elasirae. "But I think she would let you. I can't imagine why she wouldn't."

"We are wary of setting too much precedent of casual interworld travel. There is only the one of Jane, and while we have not yet approached her limit, the number of people who might make requests of her abilities only ever goes up. Furthermore, she has broken, twice, and people have been stranded on both occasions. It seems wise to limit the possible scope even though we now expect her to be safe."