"They're from the Void. I don't know if there's any other relationship. They don't do favors, grant wishes, or interact with cities. They appear on trains sometimes, and then are gone by the time the train pulls into the station. Some people jump into the Void and are never heard from again, but I think they're usually not trying to join the fey. I've never spoken to a fey, so I wouldn't know if they have headmates."

"What sort of questions do they ask?"

"A lot of people don't seem to remember. They seem to be attracted to odd situations, though."

"Perhaps we ought to take a ride on one of these trains."

"Might be informative. We'd need money, but that's easy enough to obtain, and I wouldn't mind continuing on our journey at least some of the way. We'd been after answers of our own."

"In regards to what?"

"Our original's mother vanished when she was young - and my Nausicaa doesn't have any of those memories. There was something strange about our mother, as far as we can tell, and, well, we want to find some whisper of her."

"Ah, the search for answers regarding one's parentage. A timeless pursuit."

"Seems unusually common."

"It makes for a good story."

"Do you have any good stories in your history?"

"Personally or my world in general?"

"Whichever you think paints a better picture of you."

"'Better' is subjective. To what standard am I being compared?"

"However you'd like me to see you, I suppose."

"I appreciate your honesty. Very well. In my world, there are two sorts of magic. First is the ordinary kind, which draws its power from the Fade, an intangible realm of dreams and demons. The second is blood magic, which draws its power from sacrificed life, as might be inferred from the name. Blood magic is officially condemned by the Circle of Magi, which governs mages, and forbidden by the Chantry, the primary religious institution. The reason for this dates dates back to some of our earliest recorded history."

"In those days, the Tevinter Imperium, the modern-day incarnation of which I am a citizen, controlled nearly the entire known world, save for a few barbarian tribes in the frozen south. At the height of their power, nine of the leading magisters declared their intention to enter the Fade physically, a feat never before accomplished. They believed that their gods resided within the Fade and in doing so, they would be able to serve them in person. To do so, they would need blood magic of unprecedented scale. A hundred thousand slaves each, collected from across the empire and killed simultaneously. With the enormous power released, they rent asunder the Veil that separates the Fade from reality and saw before them the Golden City that had haunted their dreams in all its splendor, imagined home of their gods."

"But as soon as they stepped through, the city changed around them, becoming dark and corrupt. The Golden City became the Blackened City, and the nine magisters were the catalyst of its change. They too were caught up, and their very flesh withered and failed before their eyes.Hunted by their shame, they fled back to the physical world and thence underground, to become the first of the darkspawn, who have scourged the world ever since. Their first invasion of the surface lasted three hundred years and broke the back of the Tevinter Imperium, which has never reclaimed its previous glory. The lesson commonly taken, then, is this: blood magic grants power beyond the ability of mortals to control and so engenders a hubris which leads to destruction exceeding even that. It must therefore be locked away from all, and any who use it must be punished as though they sought the end of the world no matter their true intentions."

"Fascinating."

"To return the favor - you may also say there are two sorts of magic, here, though it's all the same thing. To call upon your own strength, or to beseech another to act for you. Novices who try to call upon themselves must have ritual, and chants, and a whole production of it. The possession of a headmate simplifies this, for a headmate may act in the ritual space of the mind, limited only by their own attention span and memory. Multiple headmates make magic swifter and easier."

"Most people are not, themselves, very strong. They may light a simple fire. They may heal a simple cut. They may find their steps sure, their course true - but not immune to interference."

"To call upon others always requires a ritual, a prayer - something. The closer you are to the one you call, the simpler it is. This is far, far more powerful, generally, if only because there's no point in calling on someone weak."

"Most people who use this type of magic call upon assorted Void-things. Gods, if they're particularly stupid. The Void-things' motives are not like ours, but sometimes they can be spoken to. Bargained with. And sometimes they'll give the foolish, foolish human who called upon them something of a gift, though it is oft hard to say if that gift is a boon or a bane."

"As for what you can get a god to do... Why, I don't know there's much of a limit, if you're reckless enough."

"Interesting. Could one call upon another human?"

"Maybe! I don't know how that would work, but some humans are certainly more powerful than others."

"What are examples of notable things gods have been called upon to do?"

"Remove genetic illnesses, give someone powerful children, revive the dead, make the caller immortal... Usually that last backfires, you should really do it with your own strength."

"How difficult is that to do?"

"It takes a lot of research, I'll admit, and knowledge of advanced magic is often a closely guarded secret - but simple immortality? Without such a hassle as jumping between bodies? I expect most of the scholarly-minded could manage, especially with a few years of study."

"I see."

"Is that rare, in your world?"