"Okay."

So Dion and Valanda go out through the back door.

"...wow. I, uh, think 'back yard' might have been an understatement."

They're standing on the edge of a wide grassy meadow beside a lake. Further out, there's a forest and some mountains in the distance, blue and hazy. The building behind them is unassuming, a three-storey timber-framed construction not much bigger than the main bar area. 

"I've never seen a sky this blue." 

"What color are the skies you've seen before?"

"Well, Coruscant's sky is pretty much just yellow smog all the time, except at night when it's...kinda greyish smog. And I've only been off-planet once or twice since I was a baby." 

"That sounds strange."

"I guess you get used to things like that when you live in a megacity." Dion shrugs.

"What's the sky like where you live?"

"Blue. Sometimes with white clouds."

"Your planet must have fewer people than Coruscant by a long way. But I guess that makes sense if you haven't invented space travel yet, I'm not sure a single planet can support that many without trade links." 

"How many people does Coruscant have?"

"Uh...I think we hit one trillion a few years ago? That's just the official census records, though, everyone knows there's tons of people in the lower levels that don't get counted." 

"...Yeah, that's more than we have. That's a lot more."

"Yeah? How many people do you have?"

"Less than two million on land."

"On land? Do you have water-dwelling people as well? That's a lot more variety than you generally get on one planet."

As if on cue, a large tentacle briefly waves above the surface of the lake. 

"Hey, there's something in this water! Let's go take a look."

"Yeah." He approaches the lake cautiously. "Do we have any reason to think the tentacle creature is safe to be around?"

"Milliways is supposed to be safe, right? Anyway, I think it's intelligent, it feels like a person in the Force." 

He tries waving at the lake. The giant squid bobs to the surface and waves back. 

"You can feel people with the Force?"

"Yeah. I'm not very good at it, but I can tell when there's something living there and I can usually tell if it's a person or an animal. Doesn't work on droids—oh, right, you probably don't have those. They're machines that can walk and talk. Does work on Bar, which is weird."

"Was Vaayo a person, then?"

"Yeah? I mean, the Force thing isn't a hundred percent reliable for me yet and I usually just guess from context, like 'are they talking to me or trying to eat me', but."

He shrugs. "Walks like a person, talks like a person, feels like one in the Force." 

"Thanks. I must have just misunderstood something."

"I told you the magic thing is just your world. It's probably just a coincidence even for you, or maybe there's something about having magic that makes species more likely to develop sapience or something." 

"I think I heard that the reason people are people is because having magic makes us evolve to be smarter. But I don't know why anyone would evolve that way otherwise."

Dion shrugs again. "Evolution is weird."

He watches the water lapping against the lakeshore. 

"So...you believed me about Vaayo being a person when I said I could tell with magic, but not before?"

"Well, you also think you can tell for this other animal, you're obviously pretty confident in your ability."