"Alright, enough joking around. Let's see. Where was I." Elisa starts shuffling her papers again.

"I did not realize that the truthfulness between us was only one way."

The shuffling intensifies as Elisa produces a short sarcastic laugh.

"Okay. It's still pretty hard to reason about your being, but I guess that will clear up once I understand your world better. There is no magic in your world. What other differences are there?" she asks.

"Outside of how magic has affected the development of life and society, as far as I am aware, almost none. Physics are identical. Formation of galaxies, stars, planets. All the same."

"Incredible... You brought the drone here without utilizing any mana." She stands up, letting her two pencils take over, and proceeds to observe and prod the Guardian quizzically. "How much range does that ability have?"

This will be fun. "Unlimited."

"Huh! Wh— The fuck you mean 'unlimited'!" she tries to shake the drone in exasperation, and I allow its gravity drive to follow her movements. After a couple of good tussles, she calms down. "Apologies. That was unsightly."

"I would not use that adjective. But, fun fact, I can capture and store a replication of everything that is happening around me, for later viewing." I grin.

Big mistake. A furious Archmage sits down next to me and puts her arm around my shoulder. "Dearest friend, it would only be proper if you are to never share that with anyone, yes?" The grip tightens.

"I assure you, Archmage Elisa. Everything I capture is strictly for personal usage."

"Smartass." She huffs and gently pushes off of me. "Anything I learn brings ten more questions."

"Where would the fun be if we knew everything." My statement turns her head back. I catch glee in her eyes. Fellow scholars understand each other best.

"Where, indeed." She smiles slightly and turns to prod the drone some more. "So, 'unlimited'."

"That is correct. I can {warp}, instantaneously move an object, to almost any point in space." I interrupt her before she is able to speak, "And before you ask, no, I cannot warp monsters into the sun. Mana interferes with unconsented warps."

"You sure about the mind reading?" I ignore her, but a small smile tugs against my lips. Huh. Her jokes appear to be growing on me. "So that's how you have so much knowledge about the universe. You can just travel wherever you wish."

"That is a part of it, yes. I also have an extensive repertoire of technology that allows me to observe and analyze the world around me in an incredibly detailed way."

"Amazing... Then, back to differences about our two worlds. How did they begin?"

"The most likely theory about the beginning of my universe, simplified to the extreme, is that there was only a single very hot and very compact point. Then the point started to expand into the universe and all matter there is."

"Okay... Huh. What about this universe?"

"Per my observations, pretty much the same way, just add mana."

"I think I need to sit down."

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Elisa leaves the drone alone, and while heading to the other couch, grabs one of the gifts I brought, giving me a quick glance. "Don't be judgy. You might be surprised, but I don't normally drink this much." I fake shock. "Ha. Ha. Try not to upend my world view in the next five minutes and then you can make fun of me."

"Fair. Would you be interested in learning what Warp Archeology is?"

"Goddess, have mercy on my soul..."

After levitating two glasses, a little too fast, and filling them up, she downs one and pushes the other toward me.

I ignore the glass like my life depends on it.

She shrugs. "I better cut myself off." Both glasses and the bottles are then floated out of the room. "Alright, I'm ready," she says in mock resigned tone.

"Only if you say this has been the best day of your life," I tease back.

"It has been a day alright... And you know it's still only morning, right?"

I simply smile and start my explanation, "As you are aware, light, even if incredibly fast, still takes time to travel a given distance. And light is what allows most beings with eyes to see. Now, what would happen if you moved much faster than light?"

"You could see into the past..."

Admiration. "That is correct. Would you like to experience it?"

"Oh, yes."

The drone warps away, and in its place, a portal to a different room opens. "This is an observation platform I had prepared. It is perfectly safe and hospitable."

"I just step through?" I stand up and offer my hand at her hesitation. She looks at me for a second but still takes it. "Corny."

I make a show of glancing at our hands. She huffs and pulls me through. Annoyance is an incredible drive.

We find ourselves in a sterile, white room with numerous windows and a comfortable couch facing a screen, showing, what is most likely, a view seen for the first time. "That is the formation of the star system we were just in."

"As first dates I've been on go, this is definitely top three."

I suppress a laugh. "We are currently at a point in space where light from that moment in history is just reaching. What you are seeing on the {screen} is one of the captured replications I mentioned. I thought doing it like this would add to the atmosphere. If you observe out of the other windows, you will see space as it truly appears."

"Wow..."

"The resolution will not be the best, but to improve it, I would need a couple of years. Building a mega structure with the necessary proportions is no easy task."

"...Do you offer snacks?"

I constitute a big bucket of popcorn. "Let's enjoy the show."

Elisa curiously grabs a handful of the somewhat familiar food and eats it. "This is good!" she exclaims with a full mouth, consuming popped kernel after popped kernel. I cannot discern which one she enjoys more. The salty treat or the literal genesis of her world.

What I am currently displaying is the molecular cloud. While I am explaining its rough composition and the mechanics of the formation to Elisa, I notice that the bucket is now half empty. I chuckle inwardly and refill it. Where is she even putting all of that.

"Why don't you tell me the history of your world while the recording progresses," I request.

"Hmm." Elisa is silent for a while as she, most likely, organizes her knowledge into an adequate summary.

"In the beginning, the Goddess, or mana, or whatever you want to call it, nowadays people are not certain at all." She catches her own rambling and restarts, "We'll leave that for later. In the beginning, mana birthed the fae. They were the only beings in an abundant garden filled with plenty. But with time, the first dungeons began to appear, turning their world into a teeming nightmare." The cloud starts collapsing in on itself, a glow appears.

"The dungeons ran free. Blank, aquatic, nature, and elemental—representations of the fae and reality itself. The first intelligent beings, too few and still too powerless, could not stem the Dungeon Breaks, and all life was at risk of annihilation. They were locked in an endless battle for survival." The star takes shapes, and whatever is left of the cloud begins to clump together.

"Until dragons appeared. The second beings that could stand next to the fae. Together, they fought back the breaks, slowly gaining back dominion of their world from the monsters." The planets start forming, and I zoom in. There it is—her world, ...my world.

"With the existence of another people, another variant came to be—beast. Soon after, other races began to pop up, together with the undead variant dungeon. Chaos, war, peace, prosperity, an unending cycle. Slower for the long-lived, faster for the less so. Culminating into relative tranquility. But the battle for survival never ends." The planet starts transforming from a barren rock, into a stormy orb, and finally, to a deep blue and verdant green.

"That is the short description of what we were taught in school, collated through history from people that were alive back then, oral tradition, and from numerous other written sources," she finishes her explanation, almost reverently, as I show a crystal-clear view of the planet from orbit. "Breathtaking."

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