"Translation magic is a thing."

He shrugs, "I'll still want to learn it, though."

"What are they like? The other worlds." 

"Oh, let's start with Elsewhere. I think I mentioned that's like a pocket dimension? The place it's like a flat continent floating amidst nowhere. Two miles thick most places and with crystals on the underside, they generate gravity and atmosphere."

"There is no sun in moon. The stars are also crystals, and can be adjusted to simulate the day-night cycle. That is part of my job, actually. Me and my brothers manage magical infrastructure in a small town. Elsewhere is very clearly artificial, but the origins are unknown, there are ruins that are dated from tens of thousands years ago, and we are pretty sure some disaster caused a mass extinction which is why all there was to be found were ruins."

"Huh. If someone had ever asked me what I thought the first real other world I ever heard of would be like, I would not have guessed anything like that." 

"Those precursors - did they came from Elsewhere, or did they make the place, and actually come from... somewhere else?" He asks, curious. "Or is there no way to tell?" 

They make a show of shrugging. "We only have theories. Two of the known worlds have been attached to Elsewhere since the ancient times and likely got caught by the same thing that caught the Elsewhere people - there is only ruins there, and very little life."

"Most likely, Elsewhere is the result of a ritual or someone's gift and sorcery ritual. And sorcery originated from a regular planet in a regular universe."

"Do some of the other worlds have other kinds of magic?" 

Nods. "Though sorcery is the best by far. Anyway, so something mysterious happened thousands years ago and as Elsewhere just stayed empty until about four centuries ago when it started annexing Elan, a world not dissimilar to Earth, it has humans, and some of their humans have a magical ability called Synth. It lets alter the traits of living things. Not a super-dramatic way where you can just create chimeras of any two creatures, but it does things like improving crops and augmenting people."

"Augmented people are taller, stronger and longer lived. My other boyfriend is one. And the two of us are partially augmented... do they have Elan ancestry?"

"Oh, they do. Shocking news, you guys are part-alien. Except, not really."

He's still processing 'other boyfriend' when Temple mentions the last bit.

(Interesting how casually Felix mentioned it - is that just these two, or is their society more open about poly? It would be nice if it was the latter - if he was ever going to date someone they'd have to be fine with polyamory anyways, along with some... other things.)

He is quickly distracted from this train of thought, however. 

"What does that mean for us, that we're... part-augmented?"

"At your level, probably not that much? Just a tiny bit of strength and extra lifeforce. I think."

"Sorry, no super-powers from the yellow-sun."

"Damn," Jamie laughs, "Though I figure we would have noticed by now if we were off-brand Kryptonians!" 

"Are part-augments unusal? Or do people have kids with people from other worlds pretty freely?" 

"Do you want to talk about it, Felix?"

"I mean, you shouldn't feel that you should pass the ball, but I can explain. Part-augmented are not unusual, but there is... History to it? Not everyone from Elan is fully augmented, in fact most people are classified as not-augmented despite everyone having at least a tiny bit of it from distant ancestors. And the topic is quite relevant if we continue explaining the history of the worlds. Temple mentioned that annexing Elan, at the time in one of its continents part-augmented people are ostricized by both fully augmented nobles and the non-augmented lower class. And the only people that would accept part-augmented were the followers of this religion called the Daliath. To the point that the two groups simply merged. Which didn't made them any better treated. When naturalborns sorcerers started showing up because of Elsewhere the Daliath soon started developing gifts at an unusual rate because of how badly they are treated."

"Also, full-augmentation does something to one's lifeforce such that it becomes dangerous to use for sorcery. That doesn't affect partial-augments."

"Yup. And long story short. Daliaths that went to Elsewhere, managed to discover sorcery rituals and how to return to Elan. They used these advantages to topple the nobility and ruin their empire."

"...It sort of sounds like they deserved it, especially if they were treating them so badly they were developing gifts." His eyes dart to Jamie. 

He ignores the glance, "Are you two Daliath, then, or, I guess it's probably been long enough that not all part-augments are anymore." 

The two very obviously ignore Alexei's comment.

"I am ethnically Daliath, but I was raised on Earth. Temple is not Daliath, but I could see someone calling him that for... racist reasons."