"Without knowing much about Spiritism, it's hard to be sure. Tentatively going to say it would be easier, the meditation can be hard for some people. Also, please, don't go off and try to do unsupervised. It would be embarrassing if we indirectly caused the first visitor from your world to die that way."

"And he would be dead."

"And naturalborn children don't always develop gifts, but their threshold is much lower. To a regular person, it would usually just result in death, but... even regular childhood accidents can cause a gift to bloom."

"I will make sure to find some supervision before attempting it! Death is certainly not a desirable outcome. Another thing I've begun to wonder about is, what sort of," he produces another gesture, "things do gifts do? I know you've previously mentioned the broad remit of sorcery as a whole: movement, temperature, light and sound, some limited mental effects, and protection from other sorcery, and that it's fueled by breath, stamina, wakefulness, health, and youth, and that youth in particular is used to create sorcerous artifacts, which at a guess I'd imagine is more of a ritual sort of thing than a gift sort of thing? But what would a gift for breath do, to pick a potentially soon-to-be-relevant example?"

"The same things. Though, for examples of gift..." he theatrically takes a deep breath and raises his hand. A small flame appears above his palm. "This is stuck on about this size, but it dodges away from obstacles without me having to directly think about it. Thomas' gives him some ability to sense mass. Fernando regulates his own body temperature, so he can be comfortable in extreme weather."

"There is a tendency for gifts to have some form of synergy and Breath has a larger tendency towards synergy as well? Our mom's Breath blocks the harmful parts of light, she doesn't get sunburned, doesn't need to cover her eyes. And her Stamina gift is creating light. Also, artifacts are usually ritual sorcery. Most Youth gifts can create permanent effects, which sort of count as artifacts, but less versatile?"

"I got this thing that controls my hair and nail growth for Breath. Honestly, they are kind of a disappointing? It's nice to have, but a week of being bored out of your mind meditating."

Felix shrugs helplessly. "'Small but convenient' is the best way to describe Breath gifts. Maybe there is going to be a synergy with Spiritism."

"Interesting, though I'm rather baffled by the variation in possible gifts. Sorcery is...very different from vitalism, not just in what it can do but seemingly in its essence, somehow. I'm not sure exactly how to explain how I've come to that feeling."

"That sounds valid. The previously known kinds of magic aren't exactly... unified in theme?"

Opero shrugs once more. "Fair enough. I suppose it's only natural for things to be different in one world from another. Perhaps I should be more surprised by how similar things are? You all seem like well-formed humans after all, and i don't see why that would be any more necessary than our magics sharing some sort of fundamental basis."

"Before today, the theory is that Elsewhere was just attracted to worlds with humans."

"Even then, most wildlife is similar. Not identical, there are species that don't overlap between worlds, but they're largely similar and compatible."

Oh, he just realized. The tall people, and maybe the large deer, might be a product of Augmentation. Huh. He nods again. "I didn't recognize the trees, though I'm hardly a forester, but I did recognize some of the animals that I encountered earlier, or at least their overall forms. Hm. That makes me wonder about what sort of benefits might be had from agricultural exchange between our worlds. If Synth can be applied to crops or livestock, for example, I can only imagine the varieties you might have that would be new to my world."

Felix smiles very excited. "Oh, Synth can be so applied to crops and livestock. It's very useful into creating new and exciting plant varieties."

"I am quite interested to hear more about that, but before I allow myself to indulge in that interest, I do want to go back to one thing was mentioned a moment ago. Specifically, Henry said something a lost colony, and a war. Is there a chance that other worlds my people reach, or that come into contact with Elsewhere might be hostile? What is the missing background for me here?"

"Oh... well, it was thirty or so years ago, but it isn't any less embarrassing. The war was mostly from the Elan side of things. Elsewhere, did its best to stay out of it by closing portals. There are two others worlds we don't mention, they were part of Elsewhere since ancient times. Elan had colonies in the one called Exile and the previously named Efross. Those got cut off when portals were closed."

"The different worlds that are part of the Elsewhere cluster have different polities with different goals. I would... tread carefully with Elan and Earth, because they have a greater range on that. I believe Elsewhere itself will be largely friendlier if guarded? More prepared to the idea of a new world just showing up."

"Uh... Earth doesn't actually know about magic," Henry says, giving Fernando a side glance. "But otherwise, that sounds alright."

"Doesn't...know about magic? That's an odd situation to be in. And, I'll be sure to relay that to my people. We're perfectly familiar with the idea of disunity at the global scale, the same is true in my world as well." Wait a second. Elsewhere. Elan. Efross. Earth. Exile. "Do all of your worlds have names that start with almost the same sound, or is something weird going on with the translation bracelet?"

"There is also Epoch, which was the other world that was already attached to Elsewhere before Elan. But to answer your question, a wise man that spoke our language decided that it would be funny to make all worlds be alliterative."

"Earth and Elan are actually just called that. Efross' name in their native tongue starts with a hard, almost breathed out 'hir'. Elsewhere, has been called other terms before, but the current trend is that. Exile is... descriptive for its past use. Epoch is largely inhabited, the only thing of interest there are these memory story crystals. Which, gives the place academic interest. As opposed to, a place to colonize."

"He must have been very wise, if it's stuck. Or I suppose he might have made that declaration very recently. We'll see what people come up with for my world. I don't think anyone local has a name for the whole thing other than 'the world' or similar in various languages. The idea of there being other worlds is very, very new, I believe I've mentioned. Regardless, good know that politics is not a unique defect of my world in particular. Or would be a relief to know that other worlds don't have to deal with it?" Opero shrugs, then looks out across the farmland they're now passing through. "So, crops and livestock?"

Crops and livestock! Synth is good at improving those. It's possible to combine animal traits, but that is more finicky and doesn't always breed true. Augmentation does mean healthier livestock, though the larger size can be considered a mixed blessing at times. With plants/crops, the thing gets more fun, they can be more easily tweaked and mixed for desirable traits. Crops that are more resistant to disease, droughts, temperatures extremes, different soil conditions, sometimes even to pests (the example they give is one that is toxic to bugs, but is safe to humans once cooked). Then there is more on the consumer end, where they can change yield, size, shape, flavor, nutritional content.

Some more interesting examples include: a fruit with a spiral peel that is very satisfying to pull; a coconut variant, but smaller and more cylindrical, so it fits better in one hand, and comes in a variety of fruity flavors; a flower whose pollen can be turned into a tea that halts the menstrual cycle; a plant whose sap can be filtered with minimum chemistry to be used as a temporary blood substitute.

Incredible! Opero will happily explore all the varieties Felix knows of, asking about their usage, their histories, basically any information he can get. Probably this conversation can go on for as long as it takes for one of the others to interrupt, or for some outside force to do so, like the group reaching whatever their destination is in town.