She finds herself in a bar. Polished wooden tables and comfortable-looking chairs litter the room, plushly-upholstered booths line the walls, and at the other end of the room is a long bar, high-backed stools tucked up close to it. Her attention might be drawn from these details by the large window to the right, however, through which she can see a vast dark space littered with brilliant explosions. 

It might also be drawn by the person sitting at the bar - the only one in the room. His skin is covered by a shifting, flaring golden aura, and from his back extends a pair of enormous gold-tipped brown wings.

He turns to look at her over his shoulder, folding a wing back far enough to get a good look, and offers her a smile, "Hello!" He greets, "Welcome to Milliways. First time here?" 

"Yeah. Normally that door goes to my bedroom." Today is not really a time she's eager to get into chats with magical creatures. Half the time they want her to add something political to her plate, or want to talk about all her mom did in the war, or want to complain about all her mom didn't do.

"That's the usual way to get here, yeah," he assures her. "Alright, I'll give you the overview: Milliways is an interdimensional bar, a place where people from different worlds can meet. So long as you're inside, time won't pass in the world you came from. If you go back out and close the door, it will then lead back to your bedroom again, but you'll also lose access to Milliways unless it decides to steal a door for you again, so you might want to stay a while before you leave."

He pats the bar, "Bar here is a sentient being, she sells food and drinks from any world. The first drink is free." He lifts his own in a toast, revealing a tall clear glass, the deep blue drink inside steaming lightly. 

"Huh."

She opens her door, leaving her (wind up, since electronics get weird around magic) watch on the ground, then going up to Bar to get some confirmation, then wandering back to the door to check that her watch hasn't ticked - it hasn't.

"That's pretty powerful magic."

"Couldn't tell you how it works," he shrugs, "It's not mine, and whoever's in charge here doesn't appreciate little gods poking at their work. Magic varies between worlds, but I'd be surprised if anyone from yours could figure it out, either."

"We can barely figure out how our own magic works, so. Though it's also possible wizards just don't believe in science."

"Eh, I know more about how our magic works than most people back in my world do, and even I couldn't say I really know how it works, at the deepest levels. I think most magic systems are like that - though, if no one's done any systematic poking at yours, I could see it being worse than usual."

"Spell development's pretty slow and there's not much theory for anything, but I also haven't gotten an education in it."

"Lack the opportunity? The interest? Or is it one of those magics that only some people can do?"

"Only some people can do it, and there's politics about this."

"Ah, politics." He snorts. "Haven't had to deal with those in more than passing in a while. I don't envy the Shallow Gods their courts of followers, or anyone else who has to deal with it."

She snorts. "Your world has gods?"

"Yep! I'm one - not a Shallow God, though, a Deep God. Which mostly just means I don't get my power from worshipers. The Wanderer, God of Change, patron of freedom and travelers, at your service," he adds, awkwardly half-bowing from his bar stool, his wings knocking against its back and flaring out slightly. 

"I'm Canan Uzun. Ordinary human. At your service, I guess."

He waves at the rest of the room, "Ordinarily there's more patrons around, but it's just me at the moment. Sit down and have a drink?" He suggests, "I've been to dozens of worlds, but I never say no to hearing about a new one." 

"Sure."

She goes up and asks for a drink, whatever Bar recommends. It's surprisingly delicious.

"Not super sure where to start."

"I hate to suggest it, but how about those politics? Some people can use your magic and some people can't - I've seen or heard about that sort of thing going wrong in all sorts of interesting and terrible ways."

"Yeah. It's pretty fundamental to a lot - so our world's got muggles, humans who can't use magic, and wizards, humans who can, if you ask most wizards, plus magical creatures. Magical creatures are often sapient but are classified as beasts anyways. Being able to use magic's usually hereditary, but sometimes you get muggleborns - wizards with muggle parents - or squibs - muggles with wizard parents. A couple centuries ago the wizarding nations got together and agreed to wall themselves off from muggles, and to enforce this on magical creatures and wizarding nations not party to their treaties. It's called the Statute of Secrecy. Muggles who learn about magic for reasons other than having an immediate relative who can use magic have their memories altered, and wizards aren't allowed to use magic around muggles - this varies in how it's enforced. Sometimes the penalty on the offending wizard's pretty small. Muggles don't really have rights in wizarding law, though they have their own governments. Basically the protection for muggles is just the 'don't use magic' restriction and that most wizards suck at non-magical anything. Squibs don't really get these protections, and you get cases of magicless kids dying when their family tries to force them to use magic accidentally. Wizards refuse to use muggle technology a lot, because they don't like things muggles produce, and there's blood purists who hate muggles and muggleborns. Those're mostly isolationists, nowadays, wanting wizards to rule muggles fell out of vogue a few years before I was born."

"Wow. That does sound like a sticky problem. Children falling through the cracks, memory alteration," he shudders. He might be a god of change, but choice is important to him, as well. "And you are... a non-magical person who is aware of magic." A 'squib' or the close relative of a 'muggleborn', likely.

"What happened to turn the 'blood purists' from would-be-conquerors to isolationists?" 

"I'm a squib, yeah. And they had a pretty influential leader who roused them from the isolationists' kids who were frustrated at being limited by the Statute into a more militant crowd. Two wars later, the leader'd been pretty resoundly beaten, had nearly destroyed British wizarding society, and had dragged his most ardent followers down with him. The kids of the militants mostly went back to their grandparents' isolation, far as I can tell."

"Hm," he focuses on her for a moment, aura flaring just a touch, and then sits back, eyeing her thoughtfully. "There's a lot of change about you, but... it's shackled," he notes.

"Dunno what that means."

"I can sense people's... desire for and potential for change. Part of being a god - the Shallow Gods use it to determine who would make the best followers. You're full of desire, but your potential is limited."

"Guess that's true. Keep trying and failing to get stuff changed."

"I might be able to help - a little bit, or a lot, depending on how the cards fall. I could grant you a Boon, if you'd like - an object with a magical effect, tied to the person I grant it to. The effects are always related to change, and they're always something you will find useful in the near future." 

"How does that work? Do I need to do anything?"

"That's one of the things I'm not sure of," he admits. "I haven't met a metamage who can give me a straight answer about it yet, so 'how exactly does my aura know what the person I'm gifting will need' is one of the greater mysteries."

"You don't have to do anything besides being present. I can't make a Boon for someone out of my range." 

"And you don't know what it'll do."

"Not for sure, no. I've gotten everything from a pocket watch which allows its holder to change their apparent age, to a cup which changes wine to water, to a lute which changes the emotions of the player. It won't hurt you, and if you don't like it for some reason you can just not use it."

"I might think about it. What's your world like, first pass?"

"The specifics will have changed since I left, but- 

"Shallow Gods are meant to take care of their followers, in return for their faith, which powers their aura. A human follower dedicates themself to a god in return for being sheltered in their range, having their prayers answered by that god, and receiving Boons - a dedicated person can receive as many as their god makes them. It varies a bit, but most gods will have their followers teach their children to dedicate themselves as soon as they're old enough to do so. How safe it is to undedicate yourself depends on the god and the court... some expect the young to do so, and either rededicate themselves as adults or find a new god. Some expect no one to undedicate themselves, and will get violent if anyone does. And of course there's courts with policies in between. A follower can theoretically break that bond at any time, but in practice of course the other followers will be displeased about this, usually. If a god loses all their followers, they die.

"So, at first glance, last I was there, the world is littered with religious city-states run by god-rulers. Policies depend on the god in question, but most of them rule by being generous with a side of more-or-less gentle propaganda. If you're cruel enough to your followers most of them will eventually leave, after all, and you might even be attacked by a court which objects to the way you treat them."

"Huh. Sounds - different. We don't have gods."

His shrug is something of a production, his wings lifting and fluttering along with his shoulders, "A lot of worlds don't," he says, "And I haven't run into many with gods anything like my home world has. It has its pros and cons, like most systems, I think. I haven't been back in some decades, and I don't intend to go back except by chance, so it's anyone's guess how much time has moved on while I was gone, and how much has changed. Ah, if you go to another world and don't intend to return, time might start passing again in yours," he adds.

"I'll want to return to mine, I bet. Has my family, if nothing else, but I don't want to just leave it the way it is, too."

He smiles, "Hm, I'd really hate to see that drive for change die due to a lack of resources," he muses. Shrugs, "Well, even if you don't want a Boon from me, there's every possibility you'll run into someone who makes an offer you like more, if you stick around. Just make sure you don't stick around for too long - a couple days is fine, but this place doesn't like people loitering for too long if they're not outright planning to live here."

She nods. "Some places are like that - what counts as loitering? If I go through the other doors, does that reset whatever clock?"

"Hm, it's not so much a clock... you can stretch your time by exploring, some, and by talking to a lot of people. It's not exactly easy to describe. I've been here often enough I have a bit of a feel for it." He considers for a moment, "I think so long as you don't stay for more than say four days you should be fine."

"Well, hopefully I'll be able to get everything in that time..."