"Perhaps to a small extent... There was a rumor when I was young.  But if so, not enough to clearly notice."

"...well, if we figure out why that is, that might give us a better idea of what the heck magic even is to begin with."

"Yes, and I am much more curious about that now that you are here from a world that might not have it.  But, how did you come here?"

"I have absolutely no idea.  I was packing for a trip, and then I was out in the middle of nowhere, give or take."

Queen Elethy looks curious.  "In your house?  Was there anything new there?  Did you see anything else unusual before or after?"

"Just outside, hauling stuff out to a vehicle; I might've seen something shiny reflect out of the corner of my glasses, but I wouldn't put money on it."

"That's right; we need to send a team to investigate where she appeared."

The Queen nods and turns to one of the men standing there.  "Flynn, do it, right away."  And then to Mira:  "Could you point it out on a map, do you think?"

"No, but I'm pretty sure I could point you to it - just, oh, bloody hell, what was her name, I'm horrible with names...ask the person who I think is Aeslin's boss slash told you I existed; I'm here because of a fortuitous coincidence in that I was dropped right next to a family member's farm."

"Tilda's not my boss, and..."  Aeslin hesitates.  "We could just search the whole area rather than send Mira off back there...  It might be worthwhile; something might've moved."

"That is why I said I think," she quips, a wry expression on her face.  "Guess I was wrong.  I would certainly think searching the area might be helpful, though.  ...That said, I just got here."

(A woman standing next to the Queen nudges her and holds up a pen.  The Queen glances toward her and nods.)

"Of course," she says to Mira.  "And as Idith has reminded me, I have other business too today.  Do you think your computer would be better used as it is, or investigated as a sample for research or duplication?  And do you have any other proposals for where we can help each other?"

"I'd be a bit tetchy about giving up the accumulated personal history I have on my computer, and really, I think I can probably teach you more of the stuff you'd need to know to replicate it with it intact than I could with it taken apart or anything.  I do think we'll be able to get quite a few things from investigating the peripherals, though, and I care less about them.  Besides, the way crystals work absolutely wants to be all microcontrollers and such.  As for where I can help you...I know a bunch of random stuff about a bunch of random things.  What sort of problems are there?"

"Figuring out how to communicate faster, to teach people better, to fly - even all the way to the moon - and figure out whether people's bodies and minds really are inherently magical, and for that matter of course figure out how to safely make golems -"

Several people look taken aback by this list, especially the last item.

"I would agree with the earlier items, and add..."  She stares off into the distance.  "... Perhaps we shall say, medicine.  And if you do go so far as to study golems, be very careful."  She grins hollowly.  "By which I mean, ask someone else from this world whether you're being careful enough."

"Oh trust me, I've got plenty of speculative artificial intelligence horror stories to add to the pile on top of what you have.  On the other hand, there's a surprising amount of stuff you can do entirely without intelligence, just on the strength of mathematical modeling heuristics - self-driving vehicles, for example, were something that was very much becoming extant, regardless of the fact that computers do only and exactly what you tell them."

"...Medicine...yeah, I know some things about that, though it's a field where there's so much that I know I don't know, and furthermore some I couldn't know - such as magic interactions - that it's going to be a long-term project even if there's a few immediate results.  Speaking of which, handwashing, especially with soap, is good, diseases must be transmitted through some medium and you can avoid transmission by filtering said medium, lead and mercury are bad for your health...not just lead and mercury, there's a laundry list of heavy metals that the body doesn't like, but those are historically common..."

"Oh, what sort of intelligence do they not have, if they have modeling systems?"

"I'll arrange a group of physicians too, Your Majesty."

The Queen is staring off into the distance again, but she nods.  "Thank you.  And thank you, Miss Mira.  I hope we can talk again, soon."

"They don't have...planning, is, I suppose the best way to put it - only the inputs and outputs and rules to convert inputs to outputs."

"Thank you, your highness.  I hope to help your kingdom thrive."

"That has been my struggle too."

Queen Elethy nods to Mira as she and Aeslin leave.

"...I think I like her."

"Of course.  She told me once -"

At that moment, Tilda comes around a corner with a long roll of paper in her hands, sees them, and grins.  "Oh good.  I hope things went well at Court?  Mira, did Aeslin forget to get lunch again?"