Excitement, That would be lovely!

Artefacts never forget either, he says, We have such long lives, we could forget half of them between wielders, otherwise.

Must be nice. You'll just have to put up with me, I suppose.

I can only suppose more people connected to you having perfect memories can only be helpful? He muses, I certainly won't mind reminding you of things, should you ask. 

He pauses.

The General's Artefact, he mentions. I did not recognise it. It is possible it is simply one of the few I had never seen or heard of, before the seal. Likely, even, as it seemed to be a Greater one, and I find it highly unklikely any elves survived the seal. 

I have less of an excuse to talk to them than I thought I would, but it didn't seem like he'd mind. That should wait, though, probably until the day after tomorrow - I don't want to leave DZ's charger for the last minute, and it's not good to leave the prisoner sitting, either.

All good points, he agrees. He perks up curiously, Might I observe while you work on this 'charger'? 

Of course. I'm actually making a battery - a way to store electricity, basically - she explains the principles involved, sitting in the room for a few minutes after they get there to complete the explanation.

He listens with great interest, Your technology sounds something like the way the great mana machines work. Veins of mana running through various massive runescripts, to create incredible effects. Only, at such a small size it is nearly unbelievable. 

She nods. I'm not going to be able to recreate that, unfortunately. It takes better manufacturing capabilities than they have here, and even if they did, I don't know enough - my survival training was about keeping a team alive until they're rescued, not rebuilding civilization.

I'm going to end up with an ancient style tethered lightsaber, eventually, aren't I. She sends a memory of a photo, displayed on a datapad, of a man wielding a glowing green-bladed weapon with a spiraled cord at the end of the hilt leading to a box at his belt. That's going to really suck.

He considers, Perhaps the Dwarves might be able to help you with that? He suggests, I have no way of knowing how they have progressed since the portals were closed over 3000 years ago, but they were the most advanced of us, then, technologically. 

Still, he sends, That would require reopening the portals, which would be quite the challenge, given the way the humans of this time have spread the necessary Artefacts around the world. 

Sounds worth doing, though, once things are more stable here.

Quite, he agrees, Care would be needed, especially to ensure the human realm is stable enough not to attract the smothering attention of the elves once again.

Sounds like there's a story there.

I mentioned the great uprising briefly, during our second conversation, but did not explain the context, he muses.

Long ago, he begins, When the elven realm of S'Tira discovered the human realm, they found humanity a primitive race, scrabbling in the dirt and pursuing war for what they saw as pointless reasons. With no structured spells humanity made do with freecasting alone, accepting the cost in lives in return for the power of magic. Further, they were so short-lived, even shorter than dwarves, who may live thousands of years in good conditions. These elves believed them to be little more than animals, and incapable of advancing past that status due to the length of their lives, and thus they treated them as such - pushing them into smaller and smaller territories, keeping them as slaves, some even hunting them. 

Eventually the human realm rose up against this treatment, with the help of the dwarves, some of the more sympathetic elven realms, and a number of Artefacts, he feels proud of this, and drove them out of the human realm. 

Humanity is not as primitive as it was then. However, I have no idea as to the state of the politics of the elven realms. If the realm which first subjugated this realm has risen in power again, they would love nothing more than to retake it, and their revenge alongside it.

Well. There's a Sith here, now, they might find that a little more complicated than they're expecting. A portal sounds like a chokepoint; it won't even be hard, necessarily. Especially if she has allies from this war. Sounds like fun, really.

Human-length lifespans are normal, where I come from - it's more common for other species to live longer lives than shorter ones, but the majority have between one and two hundred years. It's better for progress - most species have a period in childhood and young adulthood when they're most easily able to learn new ways of living, and longer-lived species rarely have a proportionally long one.

Interesting, he muses, Elves have a life cycle driven by a set of instincts they call the Callings, he informs her. Each point in their life is driven by one of these Callings, from childhood to ancient weariness. The Learning is first, and lasts up to a thousand years, at which point they begin to feel the Wandering, and leave to explore the realms. This is why nexus worlds, such as the human realm, which are metaphysically close to other realms are seen as so valuable to the elves. 

Their receptiveness to new ideas begins to wane near the end of the Wandering, which can last until the end of their third millenium. To mitigate the chances of their being influenced to sympathy by other races, it is my understanding that the youth of S'Tira were prevented from Wandering out of the realms belonging to that polity. 

That would do it, yeah. Maybe we'll find an opportunity to do something about that, too, if it's still happening.

It would be good to do something about it, he agrees, To be trapped away from any chance of growing and experiencing new things is a terrible state. It is particularly unnatural for elves - that is the entire point of the Wandering, after all. It is only the power of the elven council of S'Tira, and the many millennia which this has gone on, which allows it to continue. 

Well, it's not my highest priority, but if we find ourselves in the way of it. Which we might well.

Amusement, and anticipation, I expect being bonded to you is going to be among the most exciting experiences of my existence, if not the most. 

She giggles. Seems likely. I will want to find a nice corner to settle down in eventually, but it's going to take some doing to get this world in a shape where I feel comfortable with that. And even then there'll be technology to play with. And art; I do sculpture, mostly.

Delight, I might have guessed you were an artist! 

He pauses, Perhaps you should simply not bother keeping a metaphorical eye out for any better match for me. I suspect, if you had mana, we would be close enough only another soul precisely like mine would offer a better one. And that would hardly be as interesting, as it is - I have had such a match before. 

Sounds good to me. I'd have a hard time letting you go, I think. Not that I won't, if you want that.

Oh no, he sends, along with his fondness and appreciation for her, I quite agree.

Gonna make all the other Artefacts jealous.

Amusement, Let them look on in envy, he sends, I will pay them no mind.