- patrons in various unusual outfits, many of them seemingly retiring to their rooms for the night. Standing out among the crowd is a woman sitting still at the bar, overlooking the crowd like a falcon circling its prey. She meets Kimberly's eyes and almost imperceptibly beckons her to come over.

Isn't it nice when there's a clear place to start in a task as nebulous as the one she's set for herself.  She sits down, leaving an empty seat between them since it doesn't seem too busy.  - It is a little strange that people seem to be heading out this early in the evening, but no matter; she's only concerned with one person right now.  She can get to the rest later.  And what an interesting person; she's clearly not a vampire, although that hardly means she isn't in the process of becoming one, being a patron here.  And she must have - politely, different aesthetics than most vampires; she doesn't look old, but she's a touch less youthful than where most people with blood magic choose to settle.  Or perhaps she's has something more important to use her magic on and hasn't gotten around to it yet.

"Good evening.  Kimberly Rohner, pleased to make your acquaintance."

Kimberly had stuck out to Margaret as a promising potential ally immediately upon entry. There were some things just subtly off about her--skin so pale it was almost see-through, a smile with teeth a little sharper than average--that indicated she was perhaps not pure vanilla human, or human from a very different universe. She was well-dressed--not a perfect indicator of wealth or power, but they're certainly correlated. Most of all, though, was how she carried herself--walking in like she owned the place, though Margaret had never seen here there before. She sensed a kindred spirit.

"Margaret Johnson, lovely to meet you. Is this your first time at Milliways?"

"It is."

"Then I have the privilege and responsibility of explaining to you that this is a meeting place accessible from multiple universes, and inquiring as to what would constitute convincing proof of that claim in your eyes. Is there some feat, for instance, traditionally held to be impossible by any magic or technology known to you?"

There's a silent moment where she adjusts some of her assumptions.

"Nothing conclusive is coming immediately to mind.  - The magic I'm familiar with can only affect living things; I'm not sure what you can do but you'll have an easier time convincing me if you use something nonliving."

Margaret grabs a handbag next to her on the counter, and reaches into it. The bag is marked with a strange symbol, and though it's small, her arm disappears into the bag all the way past her elbow, and doesn't appear to be coming out the other side. She pulls out a small wooden box with some buttons and dials, and runes in an unfamiliar language.

"Would transmutation of metals count as 'magic that affects nonliving things'? I got this one off a grey-skinned fellow in here who himself got it off someone in a stereotypical wizard's hat and robe--not the preferred magical attire of my world, but everyone does it differently. It can transmute elemental metals into other elemental metals, like copper into iron and such. It doesn't have much charge left, but if your world uses metal coins I could use it on one of them. The lid of the box doesn't need to be on while it's in use, if you want to watch the change and make sure it's not some sort of trickery, like swapping out the coins for similar ones pre-made of a different metal. Just put some in, set the dials here to the atomic number of the metal you want--left dial is the tens place, right is the ones. I don't know if your world uses the periodic table, or even has the same fundamental physics as ours, but all you need to know are some options--13 is aluminum, 26 is iron, 28 nickel, 29 copper...

I could also show you some books about the history of my world's magical community. The most common type of universe I've encountered here contains a planet called Earth; that's where I'm from. Earths' histories tend to be similar on the surface, but usually have hidden magic or extraterrestrial intelligence that distinguish them dramatically from other Earths."

"I'm from an earth as well.  Transmutation will do for a start; I'm not carrying any coins but perhaps this will do," she says, pulling a gold ring off her right hand.

Margaret places the ring in the box, sets the dials to 47, and presses the button. The ring slowly turns to silver, as if being spray painted by an invisible paint can. Margaret hands it back to her, and asks "So, what's your Earth like? Capabilities of magic, sapient species, politics, and so on. If you have questions about mine, especially about how we might be able to use the differences between our worlds to our mutual benefit, I can answer, but it'd help to know just how different they are first."

She examines the ring, putting it back on to see if she can notice a difference in the weight, then pockets it since it no longer goes with her outfit.  "There's just humans.  Vampires," she gestures to herself, "exist, but we're not a separate species; it's just the term for people who can do magic on their own.  Non-vampires gain the ability to do a limited amount of magic when a vampire drinks their blood directly, without the use of a vessel.  Within the previously-mentioned constraints, magic is really quite versatile; it can do both temporary and long-lasting effects, and the more you do a particular thing once you've turned, the less magical energy it takes.  As for politics, we aren't really involved with them as far as I'm aware, and I'm not sure where they might differ if the primary difference between earths is their masquerades."

"In my world, vampires are...not that. They're one of many species of monsters that derive originally from humans but have been twisted to want to hurt humans. One of the most common career paths for people aware of magic is to hunt monsters who attack civilians. Others are witches, like the Grand Coven, and scholars, like the Men of Letters. I'm a former Canadian Woman of Letters who moved to the USA and started a communications company; I've used my influence over the media from my company and over religion though my charitable activities to subtly prepare civilians for the possibility of magical trouble. For example, I've gotten more churches to keep holy water; it burns demons like acid if they attack. I also have some revenue streams from the magical world: I work with a guy named Alex Monroe, who runs a company called Artemis Manufacturing, to arm Hunters and defend them in court, in exchange for some of the spoils from their adventures, and his...distant cousin, we'll say, Sarah Monroe of Demeter Biotech, to sponsor witches discovering new spells.

There are three major sources of magical power: spells that anyone can perform, natural talents like psychic powers, and angel and demon deals. The latter are traditionally held to be extremely risky--Heaven and Hell's administrations change frequently, but their interests are rarely aligned with those of humans--but most people don't have good lawyers," Margaret says smugly.

She pulls some books and cloth bags out of her handbag. "These are some simple spellbooks and starter kits of magical ingredients. I have marked in each book which spells will only work in Milliways, and which are worth trying in your own world. If you want me to demonstrate a few to prove they do what the book says they do, we can do that in my room--by the way, have I explained how the bar works here? You can buy any food or drink you can think of, using any currency in the multiverse, but more importantly, for a businesswoman like me, you can rent a room here. Anyway, what uses of your magic are you skilled at? Are there any you could give a demonstration of?"

"Oh, this and that; I haven't focused too much on any one thing.  Recently I've been improving my stamina and working on flying."  She slides off her barstool but doesn't hit the floor, instead hovering several inches above it.  "I'd be delighted to see more demonstrations."

"Here's one I think you might like. I included a few of these in your starter kit, and instructions on the words of the spell. These," she holds out an empty hand, "are angel feathers. They're from my universe. And this," she holds a piece of glass over her hand, and looking through the piece of glass, feathers become visible, "is glass that's been run through a fire lit with holy oil; it lets you see invisible things associated with Heaven or Hell, like angels' wings or the hellhounds that collect on demon deals. I've included a monocle of such glass with your angel feathers. They're useful for a teleportation spell, one that uses an invocation in Enochian, the angel language; I've included a pronunciation guide in your kit. I'll just use it short-range here, across the room, to demonstrate, but at full power it could go anywhere on Earth."

She speaks a few words in what must be Enochian, disappears from Kimberly's line of sight, calls to her from across the room, and dashes back to rejoin her. "The spell imitates the natural ability of angel wings to teleport their user around the world; it's a useful one to have on your side because unless you know an angel personally--not many people do, but I know one, he works for Sarah Monroe--the ingredients are rare and expensive, which is to say 'unexpected'."

"Hm!  Vampire magic can also do teleportation - " she hops a few feet to the left and back to demonstrate " - but it gets more expensive with range; I certainly wouldn't mind having those on hand as a backup.  Although I do confess some curiosity about what you might like in return for your generosity."

"Well, in the short term, I'd appreciate if you could continue to provide me with information about your world. In the long term...I'd be willing to trade more of my magic for some favors. The obvious one that comes to mind is to let an employee of mine stay with you for a while, and test if people from my world can become your kind of vampire."

"I can't say for certain without knowing more details but I imagine we could work something out."

"How long does the process take? If it's a short enough time, I could send Grace, my agent stationed in Milliways long-term, to your world along with a universal translator, some of the local currency, and so on; she could buy or rent a home somewhere easily accessible to you and you could send one of your people to visit and drink her blood, or however it is that your kind of vampires get converted. Or you could send one of your people here--the Bar and its security keep order here, they'd be in no danger, and you can ask around if you want confirmation of that--every once in a while to visit Grace until the process is completed.

In any case, you'll probably want to visit Milliways sometimes. Your magic kit contains nephil feathers--not a standard beginner's item, they're very rare actually, but they can be used in a ritual to open interdimensional portals, allowing you to visit Milliways even if you're unlucky with doors. So long as you're not trying to bring an army through or anything, the Bar will let the portal stay open. Once she's converted, I would share the results of any experiments with you, let you know how your world's magic works with ours."