"Yes, I suspected as much. The distinction is... not as meaningful to you as it is to me, I know. But it exists, and I know that I am not doing the same thing that your wizards do. - ah, I was going to mention the third category of not-magic, biotics, which is essentially just Mass Effect created by a living being rather than by technology. When my mother was pregnant she was in an accident involving Element Zero, that not-magic crystal I mentioned. So I have small amounts of Element Zero inside my body and my brain, and I have a cybernetic implant, a biotic amp, at the base of my skull, which lets me use the Mass Effect by thinking and gesturing in certain ways."

He rubs his amp absently. He doesn't usually think about it; it's like wearing contact lenses, or having braces, or something. But mentioning it puts it on his mind.

"And you think the thing that brought you here was magic, not—physics?"

"If it was physics, then a lot of people are wrong about how physics work. Which is not impossible, of course."

"I don't think I know of any magic that does this sort of thing, instantaneous transportation."

"Well. More things in heaven and earth. - sorry, quote from a famous poet - I imagine if one world exists with magic then more might."

"Yeah, probably. You said—twenty-second century—"

"Uh, yes - I don't know if the event we count from has even happened yet or even would have happened in this world given how many things are different, have you heard of someone named Jesus Christ? Um, Yeshua of Nazareth, I think he was called sometimes?"

"No, I am not familiar with the name. Although it does sound—like it could be a name someone has. If that makes sense."

"More so than Valentin Saint-Martin, you mean."

He grins. "Yes."

He sketches a bow, then skips a bit to get back in marching order. "You can call me Tintin, if you like. It's the nickname I use when I'm among friends."

"...that is adorable," says Raziya.

"So I've been told! I had trouble pronouncing my own name as a young boy, so - Tintin. And it stuck."

"I do freely admit it is easier on the tongue. Tintin."

"So, about the geopolitics - you had some revelation to share, that you were coordinating a Kushite revolution? I remember there was a land called Kush on the Earth in my world, but by my time they were part of - was it Egypt? I think it was Egypt."

"We do not have a country called Egypt," says Taharqi, shaking his head. "But yes, I am from the Kingdom of Kush, south of here. If I have my mental map appropriately located, Stygia would border the Exiled Lands, and you would need to either cross it or go around it to get to Kush.

"My country has a strong ethnic division—the Chagas, descendants of old Stygian conquerors, are the ruling caste. The Gallahs are the majority and make up the commoner caste. I am Chagan, but—I joined the Gallah revolutionaries. They want a ruler of their own people, and I have... seen... what my people do to them. It is not right." He shakes his head again. "I became one of their leaders, and spearheaded an operation—but we were betrayed." He looks down at his feet and squeezes his hands into fists. "It was someone I trusted, it's my fault, I should have seen..." Sigh. "Many of my friends were executed. I was exiled, to serve as an example. A fate worse than mere execution, they said. Cowards. They nailed me to a cross and left me to die, of thirst or of whichever carrion animals first got to me." He lifts his palms up to look at them, and there are very faint scars marking where the nails must have been.

"Christ."

A shrug. "A man named Conan, Cimmerian if he was from anywhere, found me and freed me."

    "—wait I think that is who freed me, too."

"I have the impression he finds the idea of exile really distasteful and made this a habit. So I suppose we owe him our lives."

"Well. I'm certainly glad he did - how is there a meaningful population of exiles if 'exile' means 'exile and also crucifixion until agonizing death' -"

"It doesn't always, I believe we are more exception than rule."

"...better than the alternative, I suppose. I rarely enjoy shooting people, but I would rather like to shoot the people who do this."

Taharqi grins and Raziya nods very vehemently.

"Stygia and Kush are allies, at least ostensibly. What with the Kushite rulers being of Stygian descent and all. They have a pharaoh, usually just the firstborn son of the previous pharaoh but Set sometimes likes to choose someone else."

Tintin nods. "- in a literal sense, rather than 'the high priest and the pharaoh had a disagreement and the priest had him assassinated' - sorry, my brain still hasn't fully internalized the literal existence of gods."

"Well, as far as I have been able to tell it was literal but my level of information is not beyond being tricked. And the pharaoh is the high priest, so that particular scenario will not happen."

"Ah, the Henry VIII gambit. - king who made himself high priest of the local religion to consolidate his power and divorce his wife without clerical permission, mostly irrelevant, sorry."