"There is the telekinesis."

"Oh, yeah. The cats wanted to be able to like, do things, and obviously they don't have hands, so the Hearthkeeper gave everyone some minor telekinesis. It can't exert very much force, so those of us who do have hands don't make much use of it, but it's good for a few things, and there are some fun tricks you can learn if you practice."

He picks up the (now crumb-strewn) plate that the body was eating off of, as much for the comedic timing as to actually be helpful, carrying it over to the trash receptacle, then back to the kitchen to clean.

Well, that is some comedic timing. "I'm not sure how much use that'll be for me. I guess maybe having a little bit of T.K. that I can actually control might be nice, though."

"You were wondering what there is to do? We have a decent library, definitely not as big as the people who came from worlds with internets would like, but I think the diversity of texts from different worlds is really interesting. The permanent gardens are pretty big, so we can do most outdoor activities. I think a lot of things people do also kinda revolve around what things are easy or hard for us to get from the house. Like, it's easy to find clothing, but not specific things you want or clothing that fits you really well, so some people are into tailoring. Food is popular with everyone and ingredients are free, so cooking is another common hobby. And the house won't give us anything above a certain tech level, or anything that you wouldn't find in like, an actual house somewhere, so there's a group of people working on manufacturing stuff and gradually increasing our technological capabilities. They've got a forge and a machine shop and some generators, stuff like that. And most types of social activities or hobbies or games you can think of probably have some people into them."

"I think a lot of people just like to take it easy, do whatever is fun for them, make friends—you do meet a lot of interesting people here, that's for sure—there are some people who are really devoted to some goal or ambition, but it's definitely not a majority. That's... probably related to how most people end up here. The green door always takes people who have something they need to get away from. And when they do, often what they want to do is like, relax and let themselves heal."

"Yeah."

"I think it's different for everyone, both what they had to deal with and how they handle it once they get here, but the result is that it's a fairly laid-back place."

"The cats were all born here, so none of that applies to them. I think they're just naturally laid back."

"I don't think I've ever met a cat that wasn't laid back, so that tracks," he says, not really respond to the actual content of that exchange for a moment as he thinks. "I guess I'll probably mostly be doing the same, I guess? Maybe try and make some friends."

"They're like, either laid back, or really intently focused on something. And yeah, it's good to make friends. If you want to meet people, finding a group for some hobby you're interested in is a good idea. Dinnertime in here is also kinda a big deal... and a few of the cats are uncannily good matchmakers."

Atrhur flushes a bit without entirely realizing it at the mention of matchmaking cats. "Yeah. I don't know if I'll really be hungry again in just a few hours, I haven't been super active today and eaten plenty already, but I'm still planning to come by around dinnertime, just to try and get situated."

"Alright, we..." she shares a look with James, "probably won't see you then, but you'll probably run into people that aren't here now."

"Yeah, I think Levron has been wanting to meet you."

They've finished eating by now, and stand up to leave.

"Anyways, we're off. It was nice meeting you, Azzy. Welcome to the refuge."

He nods, gives them both a smile and a wave, then polishes off his milk and brings the glass back to the kitchen for cleaning.

He could try and talk with more people, it seemed like there were still plenty eating, but he'd feel pretty awkward just sitting down and talking without anything to eat and he's properly full now.

James did say there were books about magic, even if they aren't going to let him do magic himself. That still sounds interesting, and maybe getting theoretical grounding will still let him understand how this place works better. If he's lucky maybe it'll even help get a better handle the angel.

So he'll go ahead and try to find the library again.

There are more people in the library, this time of day. Maybe two dozen. Sitting behind the front desk (where Dorian was last night) is a hairless red-skinned man with four arms. He's about seven feet tall, quite muscular, and wearing a white sleeveless shirt. He's in the middle of a book, obviously.

Huh. Dorian didn't have any hair either. He wonders whether that's an accident, or there's a clique of hairless people who have the run of the library, or there's some sort of rule about it.

He'll walk up to the desk and, if the guy doesn't greet him, see if there's a reasonably polite way to get his attention, like a bell or something.

He can hear Arthur coming. He looks up.

"Oh, you must be the new guy. What's up?"

"Yeah, you can call me Azzy. I was wondering if you could point me to any books about magic? Especially if there's anything the Hearthkeeper herself has written, or maybe independent research on how the Eternal House works?"

"My name is Ulthi. Magic is different in pretty much every world that has it. We have some books about the way magic works on specific worlds, and some books doing comparative magic—it's like comparative religion, trying to compare how magic works between different worlds, find common factors and trends, etcetera. The Hearthkeeper hasn't written any books, unfortunately, and she's pretty tight-lipped about how her own magic works. She probably knows more about how the house works than she explains to us, too."

"If you want to know how the house works, there are two problems with that. First, if you want to know how the house works on its own, without the influence of the Hearthkeeper's magic, the only things we know are from people who mounted expeditions and returned. There aren't many of those, and they didn't give us a ton of information. Second, if you want to know how the refuge works, we do have some works, but they tend to be pretty specific. Researching a single topic that can be approached empirically, basically, like the frequency of various types of rooms you'll encounter under certain conditions. I don't think we have a good book about how the refuge works in general, because that's assumed to be common knowledge known to pretty much everyone here. Also, the refuge changes with time, so any general overview would go out of date within a couple thousand days, and some of the specific stuff too."

"So, to recommend you a book, I'd need to know more about what questions you're trying to answer, basically."

Arthur nods along and considers this. It makes sense that the refuge is changing, since it's something that the Hearthkeeper made and is, evidently, continuing to improve on. He guesses that she's probably not planning on ever stepping down or training a replacement, or if she is that it's a long while in the future. Maybe that Ton'guni guy, since he seems like he might be something of a fixture as well. Probably no point in begging her to bring him into the loop on that.

So, what does he want to read about, specifically? "I guess the comparative magic studies would be the best place for me to start, then." Hm... "Also, do you know if there are any, like, big surveys of what people's homeworlds are like?"

Wait, he didn't ever actually answer the question. "I want to try and get a better handle on my power, and I'm hoping that I might be able to read something that gives me an idea on how to do that. I guess, I don't know if you have, like, a phonebook? Or if there's a list of people who might be able to help me directly?"

"We do have surveys like that, yes. I think the most recent one is a couple hundred days old. The people who put those together will probably want to interview you at some point."

"If you want help with your power, I doubt you'll get much useful information out of a book about the magic of some other world than your own. There's very little overlap in terms of the practical skills. Probably Ton'guni is the best person to talk to about that. He can get a lot of information about how your power works, and if that isn't enough, he can probably give you a pretty good idea about where you should investigate from there. But no, we do not have a phonebook. There's only a few hundred of us, usually you just ask around."

And Ulthi can direct him to the best books on comparative magic and comparing the various worlds refugees come from in general.

"Thanks," Arthur offers simply but with genuine appreciation on his face, before heading off in the given direction. He does think he's going to try and pay Ton'guni a visit, or at least try and schedule something since it seems plausible that he might be really busy.

He doesn't know whether this is the sort of library where he can just up and take books away, he knows back home he'd have needed a library card for that, so for now he'll browse the books that he's been pointed towards (and, hopefully the translation effect applies to written language as well as spoken, or else that at least one of this is written in English and in an alphabet he's familiar with), before eventually picking whichever one seemed the most beginner friendly and finding a place to sit and read.

Also, just in case he passes through, he'll keep an eye out for Ton'guni.

So will he, though mostly because he'll be people-watching, and occasionally reading over people's shoulders.

The Refugee Origin World Survey, 57th edition, is a high-level overview of what is known about the homeworlds of every refugee who arrived via the green door that agreed to be interviewed (96%) since the survey was founded (about one hundred thousand days ago). The authors note that both the information on individual worlds as well as the statistics and proposed trends are limited by what the interviewees knew about their homeworlds—many weren't well-educated and/or came from a civilization that didn't have as much knowledge about its world as, for instance, 2024 Earth does—and how much they reliably remember—the survey tries to interview people when they're relatively recently arrived and their memories are fresh, but memories are often fuzzy for what amounts to a lot of trivia. In some cases, they were fortunate enough to be able to supplement with books people brought with them. But very often, the only things the survey knows for certain about a world are the features of it that were relevant to the everyday life of the interviewee, and it's often unclear how much these features apply to the world as a whole, or just the part of it where the interviewee lived. Furthermore, although refugees who passed through the green door together are considered to have the same origin world, there are cases where the origin worlds of refugees who arrived separately cannot be conclusively distinguished (particularly in the case of typical-history Earths) and these cases are counted as separate worlds. Insofar as generalizations can be made, or trends detected, about the origin worlds of refugees, here are some of them.

• 28% of interviewees came from a version of Earth, or a world that has an Earth even if the interviewee didn't live there.
  • 70% of Earths do not have any apparent magic or supernatural phenomena (defined as phenomena that can not plausibly explained by the conventional principles of physics shared by nearly all origin worlds and the refuge itself). For the sake of conciseness, worlds without magic or supernatural phonomena may henceforth be referred to as mundane, and those with as nonmundane.
    • For 14% of Earths that are known to have magic or supernatural phenomena, their existence is unknown to (if not deliberately concealed from) the general public. This suggests that many seemingly-mundane Earths also have unknown or secret magic or supernatural phenomena.
  • All Earths have or had human life. On a few nonmundane Earths, humans have gone extinct or been replaced with posthumans. Additional sapient species are exclusively, but not guaranteed to be, found on nonmundane Earths. In cases where the magic or supernatural phenomena is unknown to the general public, either the existence or sapience of those additional species is also unknown to the general public, even individuals of those species are not themselves magical or supernatural.
    • When additional sapient species do exist, they usually are not reproductively compatible with humans.
    • Although cats are not themselves magical or supernatural, and the testimony of the first generation of cats suggests they came from a seemingly-mundane Earth, it is considered likely that magical or supernatural activity was required to cause cats to become sapient on their homeworld.
  • Among the cases where the survey has been able to establish definitive facts about their history, 92% of mundane Earths and 98% of nonmundane Earths where the advent of magical or supernatural phonomena can be dated to specific point or period of time (rather than said phonomena having existed as long as anyone has known) have a history that diverges from a template, referred to as the typical Earth history. In these cases, the editors of the survey have been able to identify either a specific point of divergence from the typical Earth history (among nonmundane Earths that fit this pattern, that is typically the advent of magic or supernatural phonomena) or a period of time prior to some unknown event during which the history of the world in question is apparently identical to the typical Earth history of the same period.
    • 63% of nonmundane Earths where magical or supernatural phonomena are unknown to the general public have a history substantially similar to the typical Earth history. In some cases events in the typical Earth history that have mundane causes in the typical case are instead caused by the activity of concealed magical/supernatural agents or phenomena.
    • The typical Earth history ends in the year 2030 AD. Past that point, all Earths that we know of diverge from one another. The closer the divergence is to the year 2030, the more extreme it tends to be.
  • Interviewees are more likely to arrive from Earths with calendar years at the time of their departure that are later in the typical Earth history (i.e. more interviewees came from 1900-2000 AD Earths than 1500-1600 AD Earths). The best explanation for the specific distribution observed, in the opinion of the editors, is that origin worlds (this pattern also seems to apply to non-Earths) are evenly distributed across technology level (to a point—there seems to be a maximum technology level for origin worlds), although this is of course dependent on the specifics of how one measures the technology level of various worlds. Moreover, if you include cases where interviewees did not know enough about the state of their planet in general to assess its technology level as a whole, it looks like interviewees themselves are roughly evenly distributed across technology levels.
• 72% of interviewees came from non-Earth worlds. It is rare that two or more non-Earth origin worlds can be confirmed to be versions of one another (in the same way that all Earths are). However, non-Earths do occasionally share similarities (e.g. features of their magic or supernatural phonomena, or species that substantially resemble each other) more often than can be explained by chance. This is also the case for nonmundane Earths, and to a lesser extent, non-Earths and nonmundane Earths considered as a set.
  • 67% of non-Earths are seemingly mundane. Non-Earths with magic or supernatural phenomena unknown to the general public are rare.
    • 14% of nonmundane non-Earths have a spatial configuration that cannot be described as a planet. Essentially each case is unique.
  • Non-Earths are much more likely than chance to have either human (i.e. indistinguishable from the inhabitants of mundane Earths) or humanlike (i.e. distinguishable from humans, but reproductively compatible with them). Non-Earths are also more likely to have sapient species with roughly humanoid body-plans than those without. It is a matter of debate if this rate is greater than can be explained by chance, or the humanoid body plan simply has inherent advantages for terrestrial sapient species.
  • Non-Earths always have (in part if not in entirety) a gravity and atmosphere sufficiently similar to that of the refuge (which itself is highly similar, but not identical, to the typical Earth in these respects) for refugees from those worlds to survive and be comfortable within the refuge.
    • It isn't known if this is an inherent limitation of the door itself, or if the door would appear in more places should the Hearthkeeper make the refuge more hospitable to those accustomed to different atmospheric or gravitational conditions.

One hundred thousand-- they've had this going for over 270 years?!

He's briefly stunned by that fact, before remembering that Ton'guni, and maybe more people besides him and the Hearthkeeper, are either extremely long-lived or just straight up ageless, which makes it feel a bit less crazy.

It's interesting to know what slice of the refuge's demographics he's part of, and clarifies to him how much he should expect random people he meet to have some idea of what a world with powers is like, or of what the tech level he's familiar with is like. He's also curious about why nonmundane non-Earth's are apparently more common among non-Earths than nonmundane Earths are among Earth. Maybe that discrepancy comes down to more Earths having unknown magic, though that still leaves him wondering why Earths would be more prone to not knowing about magic on average.

Regardless, he'll continue reading, now moving onto the comparative magic studies that Ulthi pointed out earlier. He's still intending to try and schedule something with Ton'guni, but he doubts there'll be much harm in him just checking to see if one of these studies happened to include someone whose magic was similar to his power, in case there's even just a nugget of some useful insight.

He'll spend the rest of the day, right up until dinnertime, looking for just such a case, though past the first few hours he might occasionally go down somewhat more entertaining detours, or spend some time taking notes and thinking of questions he wants to ask Ton'guni, or of ways he could introduce himself to people at dinner.