[Pretty sure they were after something that's causing our planet to have the magic system it does - this planet not having that system supports that theory, since it means our system is definitely localized.]

[Might mean they want to steal our moon or something though.]

[Yeah, I don't know what they're interested in. They already had our magic system, though, they were - acting like our thing would be a power source or something.]

[Huh. And they don't have ours?]

[I don't think so, but we didn't exactly compare notes.]

[Fair enough. Uh, do you have any idea why you speak English.]

[We're pretty sure we're not native to our planet - like I am not a person who looks at bones but I saw a report from one that our species and a few others appear really suddenly in the... Record of really old stuff we don't have writing about. And our written records go back only a few centuries, except for like one thousand year old stone tablet. Human bones do show up old enough that it might be weird the languages aren't mutually unintelligible by now if our population split off from yours somehow, though. We do though have multiple languages which really are not at all related to each other with no idea how that happened, so my vague sense might be very wrong about how languages evolve.]

[There are places on this planet with shared Internet access where they have thick enough accents I'd expect Jackson and his dom to have a hard time understanding you, so I don't think you being a weird secret human colony extracted from Earth quite explains it, but it sounds like it's probably part of the puzzle, we do have an archaeological record here.]

[Possibly, yeah.]

[Weird. Uh, how hard do you think it would be to reproduce the transit?]

['Exactly what I did' would be easy, but that probably won't send me back. It'll take some work to reverse the transit, I don't know how much until I've gotten a chance to sit down and work out some math. Getting that estimate might take a day or two, depending on how efficiently I can work on it.]

[Okay, but more like weeks or like years? And will anyone be trying to get you back from your end?]

[Probably weeks or months on my end. They'll be trying to get me back but our one person with a targetable teleport was off planet so it might be a bit.]

[Okay, weeks or months is definitely faster than getting an eclipsed to try it. How many planets are you guys spread out across?]

[Only the one.]

[...so where's the person you mentioned?]

[Exploring. It can be irregular when he's able to return.]

[Exploring off the planet??]

[Yeah. Ones we know about from the aliens, mostly, and trying to - follow trails. Scout.]

[It does mean he's sometimes out of contact for very long times, though - there's something keeping him from going from any point to any point - and it's easier for him to send us messages than the other way around.]

[...I don't think I really get the situation with that but perhaps this is not of immediate import.]

[Yeah. Result is there's an essentially random chance I'll be found, but most likely I'll find my own way back.]

[All right. How scalable's the method?]

[Should be repeatable, single seal per person is likely to be more efficient than multiple people per seal, non-living matter is essentially free but can take time to prepare if there's a lot of dissimilar items. But I don't know how much experience activating complicated seals it'll take to use, or how much energy it'll require, or if it could be activated by people without my magic system - I'll probably actually send a message with instructions for how to get from there to here, that's less risky if my aim's off, and pulling's likely going to be easier than pushing, so I could pull someone here and then we could coordinate about when I should be pulled back. Then if we want repeated interworld travel we could try to get anchors set up, or just get someone stationed at either end.]

[Things like complicatedness and energy use can also be refined over time, but the initial versions of seals are usually stupidly inefficient.]

[Can I get a summary of what seals... are.]

[So a technique is a specific pattern of magic use that produces a consistent effect. They have to be performed at the same time they take effect, and they take energy we call chakra. Chakra is omnipresent on our planet but concentrates in living organisms. Most people can only use their own chakra, and there's a limited amount in their body at any given time, and running too low will kill you. Mostly depleted chakra stores will regenerate over a few days, usually, but that sets an upper limit to how much you can do at any given time.]

[A seal is a way of essentially delaying when a technique goes off, usually until a trigger condition. You preload them with chakra, and many can draw on ambient chakra, reducing their total cost, and a well designed seal uses chakra more efficiently than most people can.]

[They have to be anchored to something physical and made with inks containing bits of a chakra-sensitive organism - you basically write out a... Circuit? For the chakra to follow. Most people use inks made from chakra-sensitive plants, drawn on paper made to handle being an anchor, but technically there's nothing except common sense stopping me from cutting my finger and drawing a seal in blood on the floor. - Experienced seal masters can do that, but it tends to go poorly for anyone else. If your circuit is faulty, chakra will gather in places it shouldn't and basically explode, and unlike your body a seal doesn't have defense mechanisms to stop overloads.]

[I carry seal inks and paper with me, but also I do know how to create safely usable ink from my own blood if I run out.]

[Seals usually require a pulse of chakra to activate, which is a safety measure and also a way to simplify the seal. Simple seals are faster to make, and you're less likely to make a mistake when drawing it. Seals also usually have a practical upper limit on total complexity.]