That sounds helpful!

She is so helpful! The teacher wants to see his auditing pass but then he can find a seat and learn things about Genoshan history!

Genoshan history sounds like it's going to be fascinating!

He's starting partway into the semester so he's probably missing a lot of context for things, but right now they're covering an important immigration reform from a bit more than a hundred years ago.

Cool.

Immigration is, apparently, pretty much constantly a hot current issue. Genosha is a really desirable place to live and only has so much space to put people in and can only increase this so fast! There is a lot of discussion about how this historical immigration reform affected things then and what parts of it are still relevant today and how the irrelevant parts compare to other things that would be relevant.

Huh. Milan listens closely, improves his understanding of the language through exposure, and contemplates ways to resolve the space problem.

One thing that comes up a lot is trying to build taller, but if buildings get very tall they'll have to reshape the wind enchantment, which would be tricky and potentially hazardous. Public favor is starting to come around to doing it anyway but it's far from everyone in this class who supports it.

What about building lower? Or expanding horizontally?

Expanding horizontally happens; that's built into the enchantment but they can only do it so fast, especially since they anticipate continuing to do it indefinitely and, like, the flying city casts a shadow, they spend a disproportionate amount of time over oceans but the shadow is still nonzero a problem. Building lower would involve messing with the flight enchantment which is even more hazardous than messing with the wind enchantment.

It seems like the kind of problem that should be amenable to cleverness, but he's not familiar enough with the details yet to have any clever solutions.

A lot of magical details get mentioned but not explained in helpful detail.

Well, he can look them up later.

And it is very educational on this one historical reform!

Neat!

When class is over this one student can give him directions to intro to practical magic.

"Thank you!"

Intro to practical magic!!

Intro to practical magic! He is not quite at the level of the other students there in a lot of ways, but he has clever fancy tricks like the three-at-once that the rest don't.

And what are they covering in today's lesson?

Reframing Things If You Can't Do Them The First Time In Conquest: How To Do It And When Not To.

A lot of the "when not to" applies significantly less when you're trying to do gratuitous amounts of magic anyway.

Heh.

Students at the University of Genosha do not get culled if they seem likely to be sufficiently inconvenient Great Mages but the system still isn't set up for them.

It's still good to know what the normal folks are doing.

The normal folks are giving up under reasonable conditions! And the reframing bit might be useful to him too.

Yes!

So he will have a moderately informative class period. Next: World Literature. Gosh, look at all the unpunished science and hubris in this literature.

Yes. Look at that.

It's not even genre fiction or science fantasy or anything, just sort of there.

Yes, he's noticed how 'science fantasy' is not a thing here.

Sometimes someone gets punished for arrogance, but generally it's for having completely unfounded confidence and otherwise being an idiot, not in general expecting the universe to not wallop you over the head for no reason.

This is such a good universe.

Such a good universe that it's completely indifferent to how he feels about it!

That is a great trait for a universe to have! He appreciates it so much!

It continues to be indifferent!

Next is Intro to Biology.

Science!!

It's so sciency! Bodies are made of organs! Organs are made of tissues! Tissues are made of cells!

Neat!

Lungs take in this chemical from the air! Blood transports it to cells! The digestive system breaks down food for nutrients! Blood transports them to cells!

Goodness.

Cells have this basic structure! Underblood is in this one large central bit!

He wonders how much of this applies to him.

Most of it was discovered by magic in the first place so he might eventually find out!

Magic is so great!!

It is! Muscles work like so! Bones make blood!

Cool!

Evolution!

It's crazy how they have only one sapient species on this planet!

Seems perfectly normal to them. His next class is Genoshan Literature.

He looks forward to it.

Genoshan literature has way more magic in it than non-Genoshan literature!

Very logical.

This novel is about coming of age as someone really really unsuited to magic whose parents are both mages!

Huh.

There is a lot of incidental social pressure to Be A Mage Anyway but through the metaphorical magic of self-actualization and people who care about him he chooses not to unwisely tie his brain in knots!

Good for him!

That does seem to be the moral of the story.

Yes.

Intro chemistry! They are currently doing stoichiometry, with no context for what chemicals are.

Well that makes for a fascinating lesson.

He will know the names of several elements and compounds and how the latter are made up of the former with no explanation of what either actually are!

So many things to look up later!

And next he has a class on how magic fucks with your brain!

Odette is there!

Yes she is!

She waves him over.

He sits by her.

"I'm learning so much!"

"What've you learned so far?"

"History! Literature! Magic! Science!"

"All good things! Here you will learn psychology, which is kind of confusing! I will try to provide context for things."

"Thank you!"

It proceeds to be a psychology class. They are discussing an inconclusive study regarding the relative mental effects at varying levels of resistance; the study suggests that recklessness frequently results from really high resistances that brings the total effect on one's mental state closer to baseline than most people with merely moderate resistances.

It's fascinating that there is a science for this. There's a science for everything! It's a science fantasy universe!

It's really cool how enthusiastic he is about science! Sometimes someone references a different study and Odette summarizes it under her breath for Milan.

Science!!!!!

Eeee! His enthusiasm is contagious!

Eee.

"That was the most fun I've had in that class in ages," she says when the class is over.

"Delighted to be of service!"

She grins at him, and then there is an illusory bunny-in-lab-smock nibbling on a piece of paper someone left behind.

Giggle.

"It was World History next, right? That's in the same building as Genoshan History..."

"Cool. Off I go."

"See you."

World History! They are currently covering the formation of the Council of Magi, 2,600 years ago.

Fascinating.

Lots of detail about that and similar events was lost in the Mysterious Catastrophe five hundred years ago but there's still a lot of stuff about how it affected international politics and so on to study.

Milan pays close attention.

There had previously been several magocratic countries; this was generally not to the benefit of their citizens; the Council put a stop to it. To all of it, despite the fact that not all of the magocratic countries were badly run. It is slightly ambiguous how voluntary it was that one who had previously been in charge of most of northeast Eurasia stepped down; but then it was also somewhat ambiguous to what extent she actually did, as opposed to installing a token puppet nonmage government and continuing to rule behind the scenes. She certainly didn't move out and definitely continued doing large-scale public works magic in the area.

Heh.

Kemet had previously been a hereditary magocracy; the current pharaoh simply stepped down and passed the throne to a non-mage offspring. Other countries had dicier transitions.

Goodness, dicey transitions.

This one country handled it really badly and was a total disaster for several decades!

Unfortunate. He can just imagine what King Eisar would say.

Unfortunately, King Eisar wasn't there. Some people who are worse at handling this kind of thing were.

Also, King Eisar would not have stepped down from ruling his kingdom.

Who knows what would have happened? Maybe the Council would have come to a different decision. Speculating on how history might have gone differently is an acceptable class activity but if he tries this particular thread he might have a problem what with how no one else knows anything about King Eisar.

Nah, he keeps his Laefarrin opinions to himself.

Then the class discussions will go on in ignorance of his country's ruler.

Probably for the best.

Well, no one here has any particular preconceptions about undead in general or liches in particular, but maybe.

Intro to Magic Theory is next.

There is a lot of vocabulary being throw around that he's going to have to look up later!

He makes notes so he'll be sure to remember!

There is a lot about focus and pressure and from context he can probably glean the background detail that the common metaphor is that how magically powerful you are with respect to a branch of magic (there's some spillover, but generally the three accumulate power separately) is sort of like pressure, and how well you apply your mindset tot it is like how open a valve is, in response to how much magical power goes through.

That seems like a pretty reasonable metaphor to have.

There is a lot of speculation; no one knows for sure why exactly the three branches of magic hurt the way they do; there is a general categorization of each branch's "oddity," despite the fact that they're pretty sure the three are unrelated (conquest is instantaneous where the other two are not; sympathy hurts in a wide variety of ways where the other two do not; effort can theoretically be pushed beyond your practical power level in a way the other two can't). A lot of theoreticians think the three must be connected somehow, but mostly because a connection would be so tidy; there's no empirical evidence for it.

The siren lure of thaumatology is so compelling!

Look how scientific all these thaumatologists in these books are! And how few of them are dead, and those few of old age!

Paradise.

Oh except this one was written more than five hundred years ago by a Great Mage now dead, she was probably murdered.

How unfortunate for her.

Yep. Oh, hey, it's public works/possible shadow ruler lady.

Huh. Cool lady. Public works and thaumatology are some respectable pastimes.

The book does not contain enough personal information to discern whether she would have cared either way about his opinion of her.

If he ever meets her he'll be sure to find out. Sure, she appears to be dead, but Milan does not plan to allow that to be an insurmountable obstacle indefinitely.

Speculation on why the obstacle has not been surmounted does not come up in class but may be noted on the syllabus.

Ooh. He might have to do some independent research.

Eventually class lets out.

And that's the last class in his afternoon block. Time to go look up all the things that intrigued him over the course of the day!

There is kind of a lot of chemistry to look up to make sense of stoichiometry!

Fun! Science!!

Exothermic and endothermic reactions! Exothermic reactions are why Odette's sodium explosions! Fire is an exothermic reaction!

Science is so good!!!!!!

Eventually Odette shows up. "Did you forget to eat dinner?"

"...maybe."

"Is that a yes hiding behind an insufficiently concealing curtain?"

"Yes."

"Dining hall's closed, sad to say, but there're other options."

"I am but a helpless lost interplanar refugee. Please feed me."

She giggles. "I eat at the dining hall oftener than not for the socialization but I have, like, a house, with parents in it, we can get you food there if you want."

"That would be lovely, thank you."

"Awesome. D'you wanna check any of those out before we go?"

"Nah."

"Okay. Flying or walking?"

"Flying!"

She grins and takes them into the sky. More into the sky. Into the sky relative to Genosha as opposed to relative to the ground.

Wheeeeeeeeeee.

Aaaah he's too cute.

Her house is pretty close to the University; it only takes a couple of minutes to get there. It is smallish and cute. She knocks on the door, yells, "Home with guest!" and then opens it without waiting for a reply.

Well. That's a way to do things.

(He misses his family.)

"Hello," says a middle-aged woman, stepping out of a short hallway. "Who's your friend?"

"Mom, this is Milan, I told you about him. Milan, this is my mom, Raikel Lehnsherr. Mom, where's Da?"

"Still at the University, dealing with some minor catastrophe or other."

"Ooh, minor catastrophes."

"They happen kind of a lot when you put a lot of people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five in one place. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too."

"Do we still have leftover coconut chicken?"

"No, your father had it for lunch. Did Milan do the thing?"

"He totally did the thing."

"There's a 'the thing' for this?"

"I have been married to the most enormous bloodworking nerd in the city at least for nineteen years. 'Forgetting to eat while nerding over something' is absolutely a 'the thing'."

"I'm normally much better about it but then I landed in a science fantasy paradise where the primary qualifications for magical power are hubris and pain tolerance."

"Well, my husband isn't normally much better about it, so it's a the thing."

He laughs. "Fair."

"Mhm. We've got non-coconut chicken leftovers, or sandwich fixings, or fruit." She takes an apple and wanders off again.

"I'm in favour of nonspecific leftovers," says Milan.

"Okay!" She heads to the kitchen and opens a box that has ice in it. "We've got pork dumplings...sausage biscuits...potato noodles with venison gravy..."

"I'll have whatever you'll miss least," he shrugs.

She digs out the noodles. "Do you want to heat these, for gratuitous magic practice?"

"Sure."

Noodles! Be warm!

The noodles are warm. "The biscuits were technically the least delicious thing there but they keep better."

"It remains so weird that you don't have persistently magical objects!"

"...Oh, the coldbox, for a moment I imagined you meant enchanting food to not go bad."

"Yeah. We have magic coldboxes."

"I refreeze the ice when I happen to notice it melting?"

"I am sure that helps. Still."

"I mean honestly the whole ethernet thing sounds way more convenient for purposes of pointing out how awesome persistently magical stuff is, nonmagical coldboxes work."

"Sure, I'm not trying to sell you on the greatness of enchantment, I'm just - noticing differences. There are a lot of differences."

"True enough."

"Anyway. Thank you for feeding the helpless interplanar refugee. These potato noodles are delicious."

"You're welcome!"

Solemnly: "Dr. Bun would be so disappointed in me if I didn't."

She giggles unrepentantly.

Milan giggles too.

"You're really great. You've got so much--I'm trying to think of a better word for it than pizzazz and failing."

"That sure is a word. What is that word doing."

"Well, I have never tried to explain pizzazz before...uh...it's...sparkly? But not literally?"

"I think maybe I get what you mean."

"We have a dictionary, I should probably just look it up."

"That might help, yes."

She finds the dictionary and looks it up.

"'A combination of energy and glamour,'" she quotes. "Huh. Not quite what I was expecting."

"I certainly have energy. Not sure I've ever been accused of glamour."

"But you're a mysterious irrepressible stranger who's from literally another world and is going to be a Great Mage someday! I'd say that's pretty glamorous."

"You have a point. Context is everything, I guess."

"And you being excited over science is fantastic."

"Science is fantastic!!"

"You're so pretty when you smile like that."

He blinks, startled.

"...I did not make the conscious decision to say that out loud!"

"Um," says Milan. "I'm not complaining, but if you would prefer to strike it from the record..."

"...I don't want to make things awkward?"

"Well. Um. That's very understandable."

"...And you're really pretty when you're enthusiastic about things and when you smiled like that it was like being hit over the head so the words spilled out and, um, you seem like most people where you're from haven't, uh, noticed you're really cute and the whole subject is sort of weird for you? And the last thing I want is to be that jerk who's, like, 'I want to be friends with you but only if dating is on the table' because, uh, fuck that and also you're awesome and I totally want to be friends with you, like, whatever else. Normally I plan interactions of anything remotely resembling this flavor better."

"You're, uh - you're not wrong about the subject being sort of weird for me. But I think I prefer to be having this interaction than not. However badly planned."

"Uh. Okay. You're very pretty and I have a crush on you?"

"Well. Thank you," he says. "I - don't spend a lot of time thinking in those terms, because of the sort of weird - but I think you are very pretty too."

"...Thanks," she says, ducking her head almost shyly.

He smiles.

Eee.

"...If you're not used to, um, thinking about it, I could...drop the subject for a little while to give you time to think about it unpressured? Would that be a helpful thing to do?"

"Um. Maybe," he says. "Or I might think about it for two seconds, think 'well, that's complicated', and then go back to trying to stuff twenty years of education into my head in less than a week. "

"...Valid point."

"I make those occasionally."

"I've noticed."

There's that smile again.

Eee.

"So what do you think should be done to prevent getting lost in the education binge?"

"I'm honestly not sure. It's possible that the education binge is going to drag me down no matter what I do and if I want to talk sensibly about anything other than science I should save it for next month, but that seems... suboptimal."

"Yeah...I feel like at the very worst we could probably...better define what we'd be talking about in a month?"

"Yeah."

"Should I leave you alone for ten minutes in a room with no textbooks in it to think about it?"

He laughs.

"Thank you, but no, I think I'd just end up fruitlessly climbing the walls."

"Ah. Oh well, there goes that clever idea. Maybe we should just talk like grownups or something."

"Grownups! Oh no!"

"Alas," she says, with an attempt at faux-solemnity either spoiled or perfected by the giggles, "one must make sacrifices for clear communication!"

He giggles.

"...So, grownup conversation: 'I want to focus on my studies and not, like, do that kind of thing' is totally a thing, and if you're going to be too busy to think about it..."

"I'm going to be tremendously busy but not because I would rather be tremendously busy than - that kind of thing - it's just because I'm surrounded on all sides by intense intellectual temptations."

"Well, that's fair, but it doesn't change the bare fact of being busy."

"I would like to do things with my time other than sit in the library inhaling knowledge!"

"Okay, good distinction."

"And I like you. And you're very pretty."

...Eee.

"Maybe we could make this a regular thing? I could rescue you from the bowels of the library and you can learn things about, like, Genoshan cooking and sometimes restaurants and stuff."

"That sounds like a great idea."

"Awesome!"

She grins.

"Genoshan food does so much fusion."

"That makes sense!"

She grins. "So do you want to talk about magic and science, or anything but that on the grounds that this is the part where you're not immersed in the bowels of the library?"

"I don't know, are there other good topics on offer?"

"...Normally yes, trying to think of what doesn't involve enough local context to be an educational experience in itself..."

"I do like educational experiences. Bring on the educational experiences."

"Well, let's see...what was going on before you arrived...my botany teacher dislikes me arbitrarily, Illia had a break-up...you probably haven't read enough stuff to talk about books, what did you read in your literature classes?"

"There was this book I really liked where somebody defied parental expectations and didn't become a mage."

Snort. "That is slightly a genre."

"Well, I like the genre."

"It's a decent genre. As with all genres it has better and worse examples."

"This was a good one."

"What was the title?"

"'All Birds and Beasts'."

"Ooh, I've read that one, it is good!"

He grins.

"So is there a reason for the botany teacher's arbitrary dislike, or...?"

"Oh, he disapproves of Great Magery."

"And why is that."

"...Too easily abusable, which, I will admit I have nonzero sympathy for in light of the apparent conspiracy. But not that much."

"I feel like arbitrarily disliking people who have the potential to become Great Mages is not a viable solution to that problem!"

"I think it's less 'you could be a Great Mage, ergo you are inherently bad' and more 'you are planning to follow through on becoming a Great Mage and I have skewed ideas about how social incentives work' but I could be wrong."

"Still! Don't just discourage everyone from becoming Great Mages; encourage better people to become Great Mages!"

"He seems to pretty much categorically believe they shouldn't exist. I haven't argued with him in depth about his beliefs."

"Eh, fair enough."

"Maybe you could, especially if he hasn't heard of your ambitions yet."

"Maybe I will!"

"That would be convenient! Especially if you decide to study botany and get him for a teacher."

"Maybe I should audit your botany class tomorrow to see what I think of botany."

"It's Advanced Botany, not Intro or Intermediate."

"Yeah, but I've got a friend in it."

"Sure, just letting you know."

Shrug.

"Advanced classes have even more technical vocabulary to look up later."

"Ooh."

"Shoot apical meristem," she says, wiggling her fingers at him.

He laughs.

There is a knock on the door, and then it opens.

Presumably this is Odette's dad! Milan smiles at him.

"Ah, hello," he says when he sees him. "--Milan?"

"Good guess!"

"It's good to meet you. Karole Zavier."

"Good to meet you too!"

"Have you had dinner yet, I'm guessing no."

"I have not."

She goes over to the cold box, gets out the dumplings, warms them, and hands them to him.

"Thank you," he says, and kisses the top of her head.

Aww.

(He misses his family again.)

"Welcome to Genosha. I hear you're taking classes, so soon?"

"Auditing, anyway, yes."

He waves a hand. "Same thing, really. You're learning, and that's what's important."

"That is the idea, yes!"

"What are you studying?"

"Everything I can get my hands on. Science and magic particularly, since they're the most exciting, but I was a history major in my home universe so I'm picking up a little of that too."

"I see. I suspect several of our historians would be fascinated to hear about your world."

"I only have one semester of history to offer them, but I'll do my best!"

"It's more than literally nothing!"

"True."

"And I'm assuming you learned nonzero things about history before college."

"Yeah but it was mostly Laefarrin history and Laefair is just not globally important."

"And you expect this to deter nerds who aren't planning to ever go to your world anyway?"

"Okay, maybe not."

"And you have an immortal king, that hasn't happened here in over two and a half millenia. I mean. Unless you count Atennesi, which..."

"Technically what we have is a dead king, but I take your point."

"So far your descriptions do not imply that this has a functional difference!"

"Most kinds of undead don't grow, metabolize, age, or heal naturally, and healing energy has a reversed effect on them. Liches in particular are pretty much walking talking corpses."

"I meant like politically."

"Oh, being ruled by a lich-king has lots of political effects."

"Like what?"

"No one trusts him because liches have a horrible reputation. Sometimes that extends to people not trusting his subjects either; sometimes they just assume he's oppressing us in some horrible way."

"That sounds annoying."

"You're very right about that."

"So what's your country actually like besides 'not horribly oppressive'?"

"It's nice! I like it! Admittedly I might have an unusual experience in that King Eisar is a friend of the family and I've known him since before I could walk or talk, but I think it's also reasonably nice for people without that kind of connection."

"What do you like about it? You get to see all the things I love about Genosha."

He looks away.

"Sorry."

"The underlying problem is not at all your fault."

"Well. Yeah. I didn't mean to--rub it in, though."

"I'll have to get used to it eventually, I can't avoid all reminders forever. I just - wish you could see the mountains. There are some really excellent mountains."

"You can learn to do illusions. It's--not the same, but it'll have to do until we can rip the horrible out of your universe and you can show me them yourself."

"One day."

"One day. Do you want a hug?"

"Yeah. Thanks."

Hug.

Hug.

She can keep hugging him for a while, she is good at hugs.

Yeah that would be nice.

Hug hug hug.

"Thank you," he murmurs.

"You're really really welcome."

He smiles.

Good.

She's pretty much not going to stop hugging until he indicates that she should.

Karole finishes his food and leaves.

He pokes his head back in a while later to find them still hugging. "Were either of you planning to sleep tonight?"

...Milan starts giggling.

"Daaad."

"Just asking!" he says impishly, and ducks out again.

"Your dad reminds me of my mother."

"Is that a good thing, in context?"

"I like my mother!"

"And I like my dad but that doesn't mean I like every single thing he does."

He laughs.

"We're probably lucky that Illia didn't walk in."

"What would have happened if Illia had walked in?"

"Probably her sisterly prerogative to tweak me."

"It wasn't even -"

"True. ...And if she saw, like, the look on your face, she definitely wouldn't."

He smiles wryly.

Briefly more hug. Then: "...Dad's probably right though."

"That is also a way in which he reminds me of my mother."

She giggles. "I bet I'd like her."

"I bet you would."

"I look forward to meeting her."

"One day."

"Yeah. ...Do you remember how to get back to campus from here? I'm not sure a walking route would have been obvious from the air."

"Um. I could probably manage it but it might be a better idea to fly me back."

"Well, I can do that!"

He smiles.

"Flying is great, I can't wait until you can do it for yourself, it's way better when you're the one steering."

He laughs. "I'll bet."

She grins and walks to the door and opens it with a flourishing bow.

He smiles and follows.

And then flying, wheeee!

Aaaah he's too pretty.

She hugs him again when they land.

Hug!!

"Thanks. See you tomorrow."

"You're welcome. See you tomorrow."-

And off he goes to his room.

And off Odette goes home.

And the next day, LEARNING!!!

So much learning! And with considerably more context than yesterday! In most of the classes, anyway; if he follows through on going to Odette's botany class instead of Intro Chem there shall be considerably less context.

He does do that.

Odette smiles at him but does not otherwise initiate Interaction that would link the two of them in the professor's mind. The professor is a dour-looking man who smells of chalkdust and soil; he briefly examines Milan's auditing pass and then shoos him to an empty seat.

Milan is going to be such an attentive not-quite-student!

Then the professor will probably not pay a huge amount of overt attention to him!

Hmm. Maybe not the best starting point from which to engage him in philosophical conversations, but at least in the meantime Milan can learn fascinating things about botany.

Botany! Taxonomy! There is probably enough context to at least figure out a general idea of what taxonomy is. The teacher is eminently professional and does no more than give Odette sharp glances when she does something by Gratuitous Magic.

Milan politely refrains from doing any Gratuitous Magic in this class.

The professor consequently does not give him any sharp looks!

And he learns so many interesting things about botany!!

Yes! Much of it he is going to have to do hella background reading on to make any sense of, mind, but even as contextless factoids it's so shinily sciency!

And he knows how to do the background reading now. The background reading will not defeat him.

Odette smiles at him again on the way out of class but elsewise continues not to draw the teacher's attention to the connection between the two of them. Once they are far enough from the classroom, she says, "so how do you like botany?"

"Botany is interesting!"

"I'm starting to suspect there is nothing vaguely sciency you don't find interesting."

"You're probably right."

"It is an admirable trait."

He grins.

"And this is a really good place for it!"

"I am getting that impression!"

"It is an accurate impression."

"Anyway, I better go absorb some more science. See you!"

He goes. He absorbs science. And magic and history and literature and, when classes are over and he returns to the library, several more books.

Odette swoops in when he has been there for several hours. "Hi!"

"Hi! Are you here to remind me of the inexorable flow of time?"

"Yes! That and provide food."

"Valuable services both. Thank you very much."

She beams at him. "So you've got a pretty good reason to avoid spicy; how do you feel about sweet?"

"I feel pretty good about sweet!"

"Because I know this place that does amazing chocolate frothy drinks."

"Ooh."

"Still don't wanna check anything out?"

"Nah. The library will be here when I want to read things."