"Gosh!" says the teenage boy, jumping up from his desk. He looks at the closed door, the locked window, and the intact ceiling, and asks, "Did you get sent here by a miracle?"

His surface thoughts are curiosity warring with fear. On the one hand, this is new and therefore interesting, and the man's clothes are foreign enough that he's probably come quite a long way. On the other hand, a miracle nearby might mean God is paying attention to him and Bruce would really rather He didn't.

"I am not going to harm you," Leareth says quickly, lifting open palms. 

The boy's reaction confirms that he's not at all where he intended to be. He is very sympathetic to the boy's reaction regarding gods, though the glance at his thoughts does nothing to confirm which god's territory he's landed in.

The boy's curiosity and quick-moving thoughts bode well for honesty as a strategy. 

"I traveled deliberately," Leareth said, "but this was not my intended destination, so I am not sure if the interference of a god was involved. What kingdom are we in now?" 

"Did you intend to travel by just appearing somewhere? Where were you trying to go?" Does this guy have magic? He and his friends can't be the only warlocks out there, but he's never met another one before, especially not one who doesn't seem scared at being found out by a stranger. "Also this is America, not a kingdom."

“Yes, I intended to Gate.” No recognition in the boy’s mind. “A type of magical portal for traveling long distances,” he clarifies. “My intended destination is not relevant to you. I have not heard of America - what are your neighboring nations? Are you a mage also?” His own mage-sight isn’t picking up anything.

He hasn't heard of America? Really? It's huge. "America is between Canada and Mexico. I don't know anything about Mages or Gates." He figures it's got to be from demons, because this guy hasn't claimed to be a prophet, but he would be in so much trouble if his parents found out he was consorting with demons, so, fake ignorance and technical truths.

...Back up and start over. The answers to his questions are only leaving him more confused, which means he’s missing something major.

”I am not a prophet,” Leareth says. “Nor do I ‘consort with’ demons; I am really not sure how that would help. However, I am starting to suspect I am much further from home than I thought.” Are there entire other worlds? “Can you tell me the name of your local God, whether there are other gods with nearby territories, and some of the laws of magic here?”

"Gyaaaa are you reading my mind?!" Bruce is now trying very hard not to think and doing a lousy job of it. He's going to get executed for witchcraft and go to Hell. Multiple gods? Magic with laws that he as a human would be expected to know about, that humans can use directly without help from spiritual beings? He's going to get executed for witchcraft and go to Hell. If this guy is telling the truth this is the most interesting thing ever. Also Bruce is super duper going to get executed for witchcraft and go to Hell.

“Oh. I apologize, it makes sense that this would be considered rude. I will stop now.” Leareth takes a step back. This is...messier than he realized. Where to start?

”I do not wish for my presence to put you at risk,” he begins. “I cannot leave by the method I arrived without time to rest, but I can go elsewhere if this is preferable to you. However, whether it is divine intervention or accident, I do not see how my arrival can be blamed on you.”

He glances around. The boy’s curiosity may be to his advantage. “I ought to introduce myself,” he says. “My name is Leareth. If I am not placing you in immediate danger, I am happy to answer your questions,”

Bruce calms down a bit over the course of his statement. Leareth isn't running off to his parents or the nearest church, and doesn't seem about to. 

"I--don't think you're putting me in danger? Not just by being here. But what do you mean about multiple gods? The first commandment is that there's only one." Though he has sometimes wondered, not that he'd admit it, why they're commanded not to worship other gods if there aren't any other gods out there to worship.

Oh, it’s one of those religions. Leareth has stopped reading Bruce’s thoughts; if he’d heard them he would be additionally confused by the assumption that he is here to snitch, but as it is he doesn’t address it.

”I have personal knowledge that there are other gods elsewhere,” Leareth says, “but they do often have territories. Perhaps your God is the sole one in power here. What is Their name and description?”

"Uh, His name is God, or Jesus, or the Holy Spirit--He's supposed to be three beings and also one being, but nobody's been able to get me to understand it so I can't explain it. And he created the whole world and everything in it and was born as a human and crucified to save us from our sins. Oh, and I forgot to say, my name's Bruce."

“I...see.” This doesn’t exactly help clarify where Leareth has ended up.

Also, he’s been surveilling the area for any source of ambient magical energy, and nothing. Nor any sign of shielding or magical artifacts. Aside from the faint glow of Bruce’s life-force - which shows no hint that he’s Gifted, leaving Leareth baffled by the ‘execution for witchcraft’ part -  his mage-sight is drawing a blank. 

This is a problem. It means that if the distance, or whatever the right word is for possible travel to another world, is greater than he can Gate across on reserves alone, he’s stuck here.

”You are a ‘warlock’?” he says carefully. “I have no intention of revealing this to anyone, however, it would be helpful to me to obtain information from you on how mage-craft works locally, and where usable mage-energy can be found.”

". . . Yeah, okay. Um, as far as I knew before today, humans couldn't have magic directly, they had to have demons or occasionally angels helping. I know a demon, they taught me some spells, I've been studying how they work but I don't know if the demon could have made them work a different way, or whether they have to do something every time I use one versus having just given me the ability to do it myself. Would it help if I showed you a spell?"

“That would be very interesting, yes.” He holds all of his Othersenses wide open.

"Okay." Bruce makes some hand gestures and says, "Let all perceive as I imagine." A shower of blue sparks appears in the air for a few seconds.

Leareth blinks. He Sees the magic flow, but...not from anyway, it's not from the boy or from the (nonexistent) ambient energy.

"Is that an illusion spell?" he says. "A little conspicuous, since the incantation clearly reveals that–"

Then the second piece of surprise catches up. The words are in a different language, but just as comprehensible, which is what makes him realize that Bruce also isn't, actually, speaking in the common trade tongue of northeastern Velgarth. He makes a mental note to investigate; Bruce is unlikely to know the answer, since he clearly has no idea how Leareth ended up here. 

"That one does a bunch of things, it's intent-sensitive--wait, what do you mean 'the incantation reveals'? Did you figure something out from the incantation?" Even without the mind-reading Bruce's curiosity is desperately obvious.

"You said 'Let all perceive as I imagine'," Leareth says. "In a – wait, was the second language one you do not yourself speak?" His first half-formed theory, that his Thoughtsensing is somehow automatically transferring languages from this world, now seems unlikely. 

"Woah. I totally do not speak that language. I wasn't even sure it was a language and not strings of nonsense words. I just memorized it. That's fantastic--and it probably has something to do with why you're speaking what sounds like English despite never having heard of America--wow."

"This indeed seems very useful." English isn't a language he's heard of either. Magic itself looks different here – and, unfortunately, the trickle of something-like-energy didn't pool anywhere, it fed directly into the spell, and he isn't sure he could use it anyway.

All of it is fascinating, and he's stuck here. With a teenager who seems to be made out of raw curiosity laced with fear-of-outside-authorities, who is a mage – sort of – but certainly isn't a threat, and is surprisingly friendly. Promising. 

"I was able to sense the flow of your magic," he says. "Do you also have a magical sense? I am curious whether, if I were to cast a spell, you would be able to detect it as well." 

"Not innately but I can cast Detect Magic! It lasts ten minutes. Do you want to try it now?" 

"A reasonable plan. I can cast several spells in that interval. Do you mind if I sit down?" 

Bruce dimly, as a distant tale of childhood, remembers his manners. "Oh! Yes! Sorry. You can take the desk chair or the bed, whichever. Do you want anything to drink, or a sandwich or something?"

Leareth takes the desk chair, concealing his momentary alarm when it spins around. "I am not sure what a sandwich is – in any case, I am all right for now." He glances at the door. "Does anyone else live here? For instance, ought I be prepared to hide?" He isn't sure if, in this world, Bruce is at the age where youngsters generally live with their parents. 

"My parents won't be home for " watch check "two and a half hours--does your translation thing convert time units?--but then you should be ready to either get out of the house or stay in this room and not make any noise, yeah."