"Even so, it's new to me, at least in part. Thank you."

Presumably there is more small talk between the six of them as they eat their dinner. Afterwards, probably, the preparations for the analysis ritual begin.

Among themselves, they exchange small talk regarding their day-to-day and prod Opero for the same, but without being pushy.

Since two out of three triplets took care of dinner, Henry and Gabe take care of washing off the dishes.

The triplets set up the analysis ritual. Which primarily involves arranging a lot of various objects (crystals, bowls of herbs, one candle) on the floor in a specific pattern. They have a dedicated room for that purpose. They also need to paint some symbols on Opero to mark him as the target of the ritual.

Opero honestly doesn’t have much to say about his day that he hasn’t already? It’s only the first day he’s been in Elsewhere. It’s been good so far (aside from the dead city, naturally). He also offers to help with the dishes but won’t insist.

As the preparations begin, he will watch with raptly, observing and storing away as many details of the process as can be seen or heard by a layman-to-sorcery. He will also adjust the attributes of his armor such that it is receptive to the ritual paints, if that works, but he will be hesitant if it needs to make skin contact.

They double-check. Is the issue having paint on his skin or having to lower his humorism shields? They can do it with a marker that involves proximity, but they aren't sure if there could be some interactions.

It is just an overabundance of caution with regards to his humorism shields. The odds are slim, but especially considering the close relationship between Earth and his homeworld, the possibility of some pathogen making the jump feels risky. There's also always the possibility of something unpredictable happening, like a powerful and violent rogue sorcerer showing up out of nowhere or some kind of magical mishap occurring, which lacking the full use of his armor would limit his ability to react to. He's willing to take these risks, at least as long as he can keep his armor up over his orifices, but if there's an alternative he would greatly prefer it.

Okay, they are willing to try while the armor is still up. Though, it will be harder to sell the idea that their magic is From A New World without at least having some sorcery diagnostics as a claim. If the ritual somewhat fails to go through, they could maybe negotiate something.

Also the Lighttower has wards. Specifically against rogue sorcerers. But they understand that he might not want to take the chance.

Would it be too much of an expenditure to try it with his armor up, and then try it again with it down if there is some sort of averse interaction?

They can do it. They wouldn't want to try a third time because sorcery is all about managing your lifeforce reserves, but they could do that too.

If there's some way Opero can compensate for the difference, he will. Maybe he can offer some of his own life-forces for the ritual, if that wouldn't confuse the analysis?

They could try that, maybe for the second time. The problem here is that if he is part of casting the ritual, then an outside part will raise the question: 'are you sure he didn't alter it?'

Yes, that is a reasonable worry. Opero sighs, and hopes that nothing weird will happen with the first ritual.

With that settled, presumably the ritual begins?

It does! The triplets co-cast it, while Henry and Gabe watch from outside the room.

Now, what is going on with Opero's magic?

There are two obvious ongoing magical effects regarding Opero at the moment, one slightly more obvious than the other.

The first and more obvious is his armor, which has some sort of continuous link with him that is broad and complex, carrying a great deal of information in both directions.

The second and less obvious is definitely not Efrossian Heat manipulation, but has a similar sort of essential character, bearing some great amount of heat internally and perhaps most importantly, seems to be feeding that heat-energy into all of his life-forces.

"Dude, I don't know if I should accuse of lying about not being an Efrossian."

That's probably the calorism. "How so? Did you find some Heat manipulation?" Fortunately, he really isn't from Efross, so this isn't hard to drum up some surprise over.

"We didn't. Just something similar, which, from the looks of it, you couldn't possibly have missed."

"Oh, so the stranger from another world lied to us. It can't be that-"

Henry raises his hands. It's like he somehow commanded a gust of wind, that peels and melts the armor and everything else away.

"-bad."

With neither his armor nor calorism to hold it in check, Opero’s vital heat quickly spreads from his body to his clothes, which promptly burst into flames. Opero wasn’t expecting this, and while the flames aren’t hot enough to hurt him, yet at least, he yells in surprise nonetheless.