I had not actually been aware that it was possible to fuck up a spell quite like that. My erstwhile opponent was trying to summon backup. I interrupted him.

Where was he going to summon backup from? And, er, hello, you, too, he says, sending that last part to the both of them so the other girl doesn't feel left out.

From wherever he keeps his minions? Definitely on this planet, though.

Hi! You should have seen the look on your face when we defused.

It was bizarre I hadn't realised you were two people and then your magic got all separated and it was super cool but the weirdest thing I've ever seen.

Separated?

Well it was all in sync, it was clearly two parts but they were kept together by some weird—thing, I can't describe, this is nothing like magic where I'm from and it's so much more complex—and then you lost sync and were two people and at the same time had two bodies and it was weird.

Where are you from?

Continent's named Galatea, planet's self-centredly named same, the country I was born in is Laokab.

...So you're from another planet or another universe or something.

Hm. Is the gravity the same?

Yeah? Within the bounds of perception, could be slightly different but I wouldn't have noticed.

I wouldn't necessarily expect different planets to have the same gravity. What's the geography like?

Me neither, but I think I'd be way out of balance otherwise and also am not sure humans would have been able to exist in radically different gravities. By the way, humans here too: freaky.

Geography is one big triangular continent on the southern hemisphere, long mountainous continent to the west, frozen continent to the south, magic eternal storm to the north so who knows.

Yeah, that's really weird. Do you mind if we let my mother analyze your genetics to see if you're really the same species or just a case of bizarrely convergent evolution?

Genetics being? I'm getting a concept like study of heritability?

Yes, exactly. Genetics is the study of DNA, which is the molecule responsible for determining all the things about an organism that are transmitted from parent to child.

Molecule being... arrangement of very small things matter is made of, I'm getting. That is awesome.

Yeah. What's the level of science like where you're from?

I have no idea how to compare, especially with such different magic. We know about gravity and unexceptionable laws of physics and astronomy but some planets go wrong so the theory of gravity must be incomplete, stuff like that...?

What's your theory of gravity like?

Constant times mass times mass divided by distance squared?

Yeah, that's right. Maybe you have more planets than your calculations are accounting for.

Huh. Possibly, I wouldn't know, not an astronomer.

Our solar system has objects in it that we didn't know about until we used gravitational anomalies to tell us where to look.

That's really cool! If I ever find my way back I'm gonna tell my scientists this stuff.