"Why even this much similarity though - I assume everyone present was named by people with no information about multidimensional confluences."
"Yes. Even mine - I didn't know it was possible to have alternates until," he motions to Edarial and Iobel, "I met them."
"This is so weird," says Darren. "I'm not complaining, it's awesome, I love magic, but - so weird!"
"About how easy is it to just - reach out and find more of us?" wonders Phix.
"Scrying is the cheapest thing for a mage to do, mana wise, but it's not easy per say - it's often very time consuming."
"Okay, but like, could there be fifty - sets of us - instead of four this time next week if that were a good idea, or are there severe limiting factors of some kind?"
"I'm not sure of the specifics for finding you, but it took several hours for me to find Prime, and the same with Edarial and Iobel."
"So this is - set aside an afternoon and probably turn up somebody, and of course efficient use of the added value of the new somebody takes time, you aren't going to be great runecasters in the next thirty minutes - though if somebody gives me a flash drive, I'll put my program and rune notes on it, it's probably the most efficient intro easily available. And some of the somebodies are going to have problems like 'somebody is mysteriously racist against sphinxes' which limit our ability to be positive-sum right away. Okay. Was there a particular reason we were sought out today?"
"Isabella and I were busy with - things, Prime was the one who found you. He's trying to find a way to fix my instance of Kystle, and we don't have the resources yet to manage that in any sort of - non murderous fashion. We'd all like to work on that."
"... What's the situation there, exactly? I'm guessing that was the place that got invaded, but - specifics?"
"Place that got invaded. I checked, and - most of the original population is dead, and the ones that aren't are incredibly dangerous to be around so rescue is near-impossible. I was taking care of the mage situation first and getting proper living conditions up, because there genuinely wasn't very much I could do. Prime informed me that if Kystle's left alone for several hundred years my dead mother will start a second invasion in a mad quest to resurrect my terrible birth-father. So."
"Hoo boy. Well. You can have my runecasting notes and program with my blessing, they should be nicely organized at least for another me to look at, and - I don't think I have a big enough hammer to hit an entire planetary invasion force with. I get ambushed by monsters we can barely handle just at home."
He nods. "Yeah, it's - something of a difficult problem. The runecasting notes and program would be lovely, though, every little bit helps."
"I don't have a spare flash drive, but I can pick some up. Although we're not exactly bursting at the seams with spare cash. I mean, we have a small business, but it's small and there's a fair amount of labor costs getting people to scribe for us and the rent in the Avalon for the shop and apartment is kind of astronomical. So if anybody has solved economics that would be nice to know."
She's back after a brief phone call. "I'll get back to you about how much minimally suspicious cash I can divert your way. Unless the Secret Service already suspects you of counterfeiting or it turns out the design of the money is different, you should be fine."
"What if the design of the - then you have some spare petty cash lying around which happens to be kind of old, okay. Thanks."
"No problem, what else would a portal network slowly edging out airlines the world over be for?"
Cypress waves, obviously pleased with himself. "The economy cowers before us. Bwuahahaha."
"At some point we're planning to come clean about who's making the portals, but I keep putting it off for this or that reason."
"We want the result that it gets us in the end, but the upheaval necessary for it annoys the both of us," clarifies Cypress. "I don't particularly mind her taking all of the credit."
"Katydid," says Iobel suddenly. "I mean - that'll do for a nickname. By analogy to Cricket. Call me Katydid until I think of something better."
"Two water features, an insect, and - what's Phix supposed to mean? The translation spell isn't getting it."