"...that seems a distinct possibility, yes. Tell me more about demons?"

"Uh... like what? They're like animals but some of them are like people? They're usually pretty hardy and have magical defenses and sometimes offenses—I had to kill a bat demon a couple of weeks ago, it was... maybe half again as tall as me, pretty damn hardy, nearly killed me and my pet shaleback."

"Huh. That's new to me. If they have magical defenses I don't know how that'd stack up against my abilities... you'll have to bring me with you next time you're expecting one, I'll make an experiment of it."

"Sure. Actually I wonder how you would do against undead, too, the whole reason I wanted to move up here to the highlands was to be closer to where the undead Priestking and his son are meant to be."

"Undead? ...corporeal or incorporeal? - we have myths about undead but no actual examples, I'm trying to get a feel for the terrain."

"I think I have only found one actual ghost. There are some memories etched into places that look like ghosts but they are not... there. I believe the Priestking and his son are not ghosts, though."

"Well. We will have to see how they respond to biotics and bullets."

"I do not know what it is about the Exiled Lands. I had only heard stories of the undead, before I came here, and demons were definitely not that common either."

"I could theorize, but it's useless without evidence."

"I don't have anything better to do with this walk than listen to you."

"Some kind of enchantment on the land itself, left over from a war. Some kind of enchantment resulting from the decay of other magic, like radioactive waste. Higher rate of sorcery per capita resulting in ambient waste magic looking for things to do. Lower rate of sorcery per capita resulting in ambient unused magic looking for things to do. Protective enchantments on the rest of the world that aren't being maintained here. This being a place where people are sent to die has actual magic effects, because magic is fundamentally narrative. Natural ecological pressures resulting from climate and prey availability have driven the demons to the Exiled Lands. I really don't have enough information to rule out any of these."

"I think I might," he says, making a humming noise.

"Oh?"

"This is where the giant-kings used to live, and they were a small enough kingdom to mostly stay here," he explains. "I'm not entirely sure where all of the survivors of the Fall of Atlantis went, but I do know that the Witch Queen, who was meant to be one of the most powerful ones, did end up coming here, and they had a war. Maybe those things together are all there is to it. So, your first option, basically. Maybe the second one, too, I don't know how magic behaves after a long time."

"Oh! That would explain all those cyclopean ruins, wouldn't it - perhaps literally cyclopean, at that. I was basically just combining theories I'd come up with if this were a fantasy story with theories I'd be coming up with in my own world for a region of land that was acting strangely, and my first guess in either case would be 'what if someone used a weapon that had extremely long-lasting effects'."

"The giants aren't even that tall! They are only about twice as tall as me, or at least the two I've met were, I suppose they could have been unusually short. But no, I think they just really really liked building big things."

"Well, perhaps since the fall of their empire they've gotten smaller? I don't know. At any rate - giants, how bizarre. Ordinarily I'd be invoking the Square-Cube Law, but I suppose I don't know how much magic they have in their skeletons or even strictly speaking if you have the Square-Cube Law in effect - basically it says that as you get bigger you need stronger and stronger materials making up your body so you don't collapse, which is why you couldn't build a skyscraper out of clay."

"Skyscraper." He shakes his head. "Well, I don't know what their bones are made of, anyway."

"Skyscrapers! Perhaps in a few decades we'll have the technological base to build one. - actually I probably have a holo on my omni-tool, give me one moment - Milou, bring up a picture of a skyscraper."

Above Tintin's wrist appears a nighttime skyline view of Illium.

"It's a lovely place. Pity it's... Illium."

"Hmm?"

"It's one of the most dangerous places in the galaxy. Ruled by criminals and pirates, though they act like they're politicians. You can hire an assassin or buy a slave as casually as you would hire an accountant. The only thing they hold sacred is hard cash."

Taharqi wrinkles his nose. "Distasteful."

"Very much so. But beautiful, in its way. It was originally colonized by the asari, they have a way with architecture and design..."

He can talk about asari art for a while. He took a class in college on Siarist design principles, for the not-actually-called-humanities-anymore credit.