"You'd have to be really distracted. I'm sure someone's lost a toe or two that way."

"Well that's a way less humorous kind of accident than leaving the world with the legacy of your burning hat."

"A bit, yes."

"My world's magic system seems - nicer - than yours. I mean, this specific iteration. The underlying cycle might also come out ahead but it's a much closer call."

"Yes, although the simple applications of mine are really quick and easy, I used to cook that way."

"—if that were my magic system I think I'd just end up feeling even more betrayed when it turned out to be secretly ending the world—"

"I mean. Yeah, that was not fun. Whoops, should not have skipped learning to fry things just because I had sheep blood on hand."

"Yeah, I can imagine. —I realize this is probably not a solution to, like, any of your top ten problems, but when things are a bit more settled I can get you cooking lessons—magic lessons, too, make your own heat-stones, if you don't mind the time investment—"

"I do actually know how to feed myself without magic, but sure, that might be fun."

"Yeah. My instinctive reaction to any problem in my vicinity is 'how do I solve that', even if it's comparatively trivial."

"Seems like a useful impulse."

"It does come in handy, yeah. Also makes a lot of work for me but on the whole I don't think I can complain."

"I think it's very appropriate that when I went into the palace and asked who to go to with a bizarre emergency three people named you."

"What, at the same time?"

"Pretty much!"

"I feel very proud of having lived the kind of life that produces these results!"

"I think if you burst into the mage guild and asked who to go to with a bizarre emergency, you might get referred to me, but for it to be definite you might have to add that you were an alien."

"Okay, I'm interested in hearing what kind of life you've led that gets you named as the handler of alien-related bizarre emergencies in particular."

"I'm good at - explaining cultural things that people take for granted, from a neutral perspective. I did a lot of 'here's a mage from such and such a culture who has learned Gatetalk out of a book but is confused by our customs, send them to Cor'."

"Ooh, useful skill to have. Want to explain your customs to a real live alien?"

"You'll have to tell me where to start."

"I haven't noticed you doing anything strikingly odd yet, hmm... what are some of the things you've previously had to explain?"

"People are not quiet at night because it is not night everywhere in the city, it is unacceptable to throw fruit at people even if they are not disciplining their children as you would prefer, we will not track down your runaway spouse for you, neither homelessness nor any of its inevitable consequences are illegal so if you want the guy off your front steps your options are to bribe him or invite him in, people are not respecting your prayer hour because we can't respect all of the many religions people in Gatesnest subscribe to, it is considered threatening to brandish knives at people..."

"—was someone brandishing a knife at people under the impression that it wasn't threatening or just under the impression that threatening people with knives is an ordinary and unobjectionable form of communication?"

"Well, I was doing all this in my capacity as a mage, see, so it was a mage who was doing it. They have knives for bleeding animals - it wasn't mostly sheep there it was something else, yaks, maybe, I forget - and he didn't have very good command of the language and met someone who also didn't and was trying to communicate that he was a mage..."