Ocean (or possibly just a sea, he's not high enough that the horizon is that far), lakes and forests, the occasional burned husk of a town or farm, are visible below. It's apparently winter - snow on the ground for most of the visible area.

There might be some strange sounds coming from the north, out over the ocean.

Those burned husks are concerning, the strange sounds are even more so. Felix's reflects and puts his floating pebble inside a relatively whole structure that is big enough to contain the thing when it grows to it's full size. With the pebble parked there, Felix then will fly towards the strange sounds.

The sound gets gradually louder and clearer. It's some sort of constant metallic screech.

Okay... Felix will start gathering fog, to give himself a cover and then continue approaching.

Soon it becomes clear that the source of the sound is a large, floating, red-and-black, vaguely bird-shaped thing.

It banks toward Felix.

Oh, shit. Felix starts gathering lighting but it will take forever until he has enough energy for a proper lighting bolt.

Well, maybe it isn't hostile, the large ominous bird-like thing that is nearby a bunch of burned out towns and farms.

Yeah, Felix saw that movie a dozen times, he will just... fly away from it.

Three people flying on... Things, appear from thin air. "Damn, they said it was small. Hey you you, can you use more lightning! Sparky can do lightning!"

There is French swearing. "Well we kinda need it suck it up!"

Felix blinks. He understood the French swearing. He doesn't know that much French... okay, whatever. He flies closer.

"What the hells is that thing?!"

"It's a goddamn Neuroi that's what! Wherever you been for da last twenty five years help us kill it before it gets to the coast and flash-boils another town!"

"I am not from this world!" Felix says, he starts shooting fire at the thing. "How do you kill it?"

The Neuroi has approached close enough to return fire with red lasers(?).

"Worlds? Pfah. It regenerates but has a core keep blasting until we find it. Only three of us and you..."

They've started firing guns and bows and arrows at it along with some kind of magic attack. They produce blue shields too.

"Can you catch lightning or not? Make this a lot less risky."

The French one mutters, "My hair can suffer if it saves us..."

Felix continues the fire. "I can do weather and fire. I'm gathering a thunderbolt."

"What she is trying to ask is if it would be faster if I zap you."

"Don't zap me. Can you charge up the air? Create electricity?"

"I can make a bolt- fire it into the air?" Glance. "Sitting still and talking is about to become very unpleasant."

"Try that! And keep moving if necessary."

They all disperse, weaving around the Neuroi, trying to confuse it. After a few moments, a large section of sky flashes with a tree of lightning. Electricity and ozone permeate the air.

And the lighting gets all redirected towards the Neuroi threat.

It SCREAMS Metallically. The three soldiers don't let up.

Soon it's dissolving into countless fading shards of light.

"It's defeated? What the hell was that thing?"

"Yeah, it's gone. It's... One of the monsters that come out of the giant hurricane over Ostmark. We're Witches, we kill them because nothing else makes much of a dent. Who and what are you?"

"Felix Dalkaila, I'm a Skymage from another universe. I have no clue how I got here, but here I am."

"I've never heard of new worlds but there's enough crazy magic and weird things out there that I believe you. But bloody hell... You don't sound like you came here on purpose?"

He sounds tired and his eyes looks like he has been crying. "No. I did not. You are speaking English. Are we in America?"

"Damn, that sucks. No this is somewhere between Suomus and Orussia. It's just English is the 'ficial language of the Defense Force."

"I don't recognize those names. Except Orussia sounds like Russia. Are we somewhere in Eurasia?"

"Eh, we call it Europa?"

"Dragon," the one with the lightning attack interrupts, "We should start heading home. That was tiring and I don't want to hover for half an hour having a conversation."

"Oh. Do you mind following us?"

Felix debates for a second and decides to  leave the pebble where it is.

"Sure. I really need to learn about the world. And we have Europe. Eurasia is the sort of the combined zone of two continents Russia extends through them both."

"As far as continents we got Europa, Africa, Australia, North and South Liberion, Antarctica, and some people count the Deep Pacific Island Chain even though it's just a buncha islands and not a proper continent." She asks the quiet, dark-skinned third Witch, "Which way?" She replies quietly and the three start flying off.

Felix follows. "I haven't heard of that Island Chain. We have North and South America, which might be our equivalents. How often those Neuroi things attack? Also the year where I'm from is 2016, how about here?"

"...Fourteen twenty four."

That would explain the fact that they're using bows and arrows, and the rather primitive nature of the guns they were carrying.

Yes it would explain.

"Okay, since my European history is kinda of rusty, I want to be sure I didn't time travel. Any chance that you have pocket dimensions? Or, I guess the term was hiddelands, anyway do have those?"

The French one says, "Hmm. Didn't Glida the Grey have a pocket dimension?"

"Yeah. Couldn't go into it though, just store things."

The quiet one is still quiet.

"I am talking about places, some the size of continents that people can go through. Skymages originated from one in my world. And they should've been known by the 15th century."

"We're not skymages. We're Witches. Do you have Neuroi?"

"I know you are not Skymages. You don't have wings," Felix says waving his own red-orange ones. "We have the occasion monster. The Stormlands even have things that create storms, but that wasn't one of them."

"Well we get something like a dozen Neuroi a day and it takes most of the combined efforts of the worlds' combat-age Witches to keep them back."

"Yes. So do you have a chain of command so I can figure out the best way to help?"

"For sure. Highlander's our wing commander, she's a bloody noble, people at the top listen to her. What can you help with?"

"There is the things you saw..." Felix says then he thinks for a long while.

"I'm immortal and I can expand a pocket dimension while sleeping. I can create... nearly anything non-magical in it."

"That'll be handy! No more stinkin' famines."

"I'm constrained to something like three cubic kilometers per hour of sleep, but I can make farms and my pocket dimension also has this property where fire doesn't harm or consumes things. I can make an eternal fire and underground farms that way. I probably can make technology that is better than what you have too."

"You are going to help a whole lot of people."

Fly, fly.

"Anything I can do to help you? Don't expect there to be much but I will probably do it."

"I- thank you for the offer. If there is a way to take me back home that would help a lot and then we could pool more people to help with the Neuroi. I bet a Witch-queen could fight one of those things easily."

"There are teleporters. I can't say whether any of them can teleport you home. Witches aren't queens as much as you might think? We don't do politics as much as we could, generally. Unless you mean something other than a married woman ruling a political body with that word."

"Oh, I meant something different from what you are. Witch-queens are another type of magical person where I'm from. Very powerful. Typically rule their own little kingdoms and fight each other a lot."

"I see. A full wing of us can best a Neuroi pretty easily though, especially veterans, even moreso now that we're starting to get weapons that aren't entirely useless. Usual flight size is eight to fifteen."

"A single witch queen wouldn't have taken as long as we did to defeat a Neuroi. I wouldn't be surprise it took a single strike. The main issue is convincing them to come to your add."

"That's something for the diplomats. I am very not a diplomat."

"Oh, true. Sorry, how long until you get back to wherever we are going?"

Quiet-person says, "Twenty two minutes at this speed."

"Okay. What else can you tell me about your world? Let's start with your kind of witch?"

"Ehm, only girls, mostly random, pretty rare but not that rare, magic starts when you're ten or eleven and gets weaker when you get old or sometimes if you get hurt wrong. All of us can fly on brooms or better than that not-brooms that are specially shaped for it. All of us can do shields and energy blasts. Then everyone gets a special magic. Mine is very high endurance."

The blond one says, "You saw my lightning."

The navigator whispers. "Stealth."

"Oh, that is an interestingly well-rounded power pool. Sounds stronger than anything in my world that isn't a Skymage, Witch-Queen or a very well-trained magician."

"Oh yeah, they assemble teams for roundedness. There's all sorts. Making geases, healers, cooking magic, transforming people, telekinesis, translators, teleporters, only a handful of oracles for the whole world and we have one of the best!"

"I'm mean the basic power set with mobility, attack, defense, extra."

"What is cooking magic?"

"I think they're just magically good at cooking, everything they make turns out super delicious and nutritious maybe because there's magic in it. I think there was an academic debate over whether the stuff cooking-witches make counted as magic items and it was eventually decided that they don't."

"Oh, okay. Do you have any other sort of magic? My universe has at least a hundred types of magical person and things. Most are not really useful against the neuroi."

"Eh, no, it's just Witches and Neuroi. If they're even magic and not ridiculously advanced science or something."

"It looked like something out of science-fiction... which is a genre that didn't exist until the 19th I think. I meant it looked like something of advanced science, but of course it could just look like that."

"Hmmmmmmm. Well! What kind of technology do you know? Communication stuff would be a good start! Cut telegraph lines can ruin everyone's week."

"I have things better than telegraphs... which I'm surprised you do have, since I think they are invented around the 1800's? Most communication works through radio, which is a kind of invisible light. And we use towers that transmit and things called satellites that go so high up in the sky that they float. There are much better weapons too."

"Witches are living weapons but if we don't know where the Neuroi is we can't kill it. More stable bombs woulda been the next thing I asked for. I lost my eyebrows and most of my hair bombing a cruiser class Neuroi once, haha."

"I really need to talk with whoever in charge then. I should be able to at least point some scientists in the right directions to make things like radio and airborne non-magical vehicles."

"I bet they'll love it. I know the UDF pays lots of people to seriously study interesting technology and science ever since things started to get really organized. Trains and telegraphs came from that, so did the Steelwings, and fulminate bombs, and word is we're getting a new kind of uniform in a few months that resists heat better. It's really cool, all this inventing. I don't have the smarts for it and I've got magic besides so I help keep 'em safe."

"Good things you got a nice organization going. Steelwings?"

"The official name is something like 'Mechanically Balanced Witch Combat Vehicle'. Steelwing's easier to say."

Felix flies silently for a few minutes.

"What else can you tell me about the world?"

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..."

The French woman interrupts, "The nobility's power is battered but not broken by the unity agreements. I am supposed to have my ancestral lands returned if the Neuroi are ever finally defeated. Whether that will actually happen is another question."

"Iii... am sorry for that. What kind of noble are you?"

"I'm not bitter. I can be worthy of respect and honor just as well without a title. It's why I serve the Defense Force, after all."

"I am a daughter of the Duke of Burgendovie. I say 'my' lands, but truly they belong to my family and not me personally."

Well, this is awkward. Felix doesn't need to deal with this kind of politics right now. Poor, woman though.

"I am sort of nobility. You can't have my kind of magic without getting political power too."

She's either putting on a very good front of not caring, or really believes herself.

'Dragon' takes over again, loud and cheerful. "Yeah, Parts of Africa kinda like that I think. People follow Witches there even if they don't want it."

The coast is visible up ahead. The quiet navigator peers at it, then announces, "Left twelve degrees." The Witches turn.

Any visible settlements yet?

Yeah. There's an active lighthouse down there, and a sparsely be-housed coastal road with a telegraph wire running alongside, plus what looks like a fishing village in a cove off to the right. There's signs of fire damage, but there are definitely also people living down there.

"Hey Felix if you want me to fend everyone off when we land and give you space I can do that. They'll probably want Copycat to look at you. She can analyze other Witches' magic, sometimes copy it, they throw her at anything weird and new and she says whether or not it's really a cursed person or going to turn into a demon at midnight and eat time or something."

"I'm okay as long people don't pull or damage my feathers or generally touch it like I'm a curious animal. And warn copycat to not actually copy the part of the magic that creates the pocket dimension, it is... hard to explain and the result might be unpredictable."

"Sure thing! Ooh, Marjorn's out today, isn't his boat pretty?"

She points. It is rather lavishly decorated, for a fishing boat. Painted elaborately.

Sparky replies, "Before you swoop down let's just get home, I'm tired and I have to comb my hair again."

"It's very pretty. But we should get home, yeah. Also, how the average person is going to react to someone like me?"

"That you're probably something strange and not a cursed human, possibly dangerous, probably OK if the UDF is vouching for you."

"Okay, are curses common?"

"They used to be. Now they are extremely illegal unless taken voluntarily with pre-arranged written consent, for some insane reason. There aren't that many Witches who can do curses as their special, more than geases but not that many, and locator-Witches are perfectly capable of hunting them down and pointing a strike team at their faces if they go around cursing people willy-nilly."

"Oh, good. I wouldn't want to test your magic against mine, not that way at least."

"It's nice when people don't act like barbarians and bandits and we don't have to test unpleasant violent edge cases, yeah." She giggles.

"It sure makes things between any groups of people that much friendlier."

"There it is, see the castle? They've done some work on converting it for more modern use, but it's still mostly a castle."

"Oooh, nice. Do you have a witch with sleeping powers? I should take a quick nap just to check if I can still make everything I could do back home."

"Uh, not here, but there's probably one available? We have extract of poppy for insomnia if you want that."

"... If I can't conjure books from back home I will spend a great deal trying to remember every scientific detail I can. I will try sleep normally, instead. Poppy extract is likely dangerous."

"If you say so? I have no idea what you think is dangerous and not dangerous and primitive or not. We're advancing pretty fast. You need poppy or something to sleep off burns for a month, let me tell you."

"Oh, I didn't mean to be... whatever is being insensitive about technological advancement, but I know that poppy is the source of at least two drugs, one outlawed, another controlled and I stay off even regular alcohol."

"Either way, we're headin' down now."

Felix does indeed attract a lot of attention. She fends most of it off, insisting that it's a problem for Copycat and the commander.

"Oh," one of the maintenance crew replies, "Something's wrong with Gren. She was supposed to be on flight standby an hour ago, but she was late. They went to get her but she won't wake up. They hauled her to the infirmary."

Felix overhears this. "...Any idea what caused it?"

"She's the one we go to to diagnose weird magic. So, no. They're sending out another healer, since Angel's aura doesn't seem to be helping."

"...How does her copying works? What it's range?" Felix asks sounding a bit more alarmed.

"Er, about a mile? She sort of, stares at another Witch for a while and takes notes, and then she can do some of what they could. She says it gives her synesthesia."

"Okay... I don't think that timeline makes a lot of sense, but my pocket dimension magic is activated by artifact that causes the person to sleep until their in-dimension-projected-self exits through a portal."

"She has a lot of strange objects in her room. I wouldn't have noticed a new one."

"Okay... Do you mind if I take a look?"

Someone new shows up. Tall, buff, and steely-eyed. "With supervision, yes. No offense, but we can't trust you fully yet. And our usual lie-detector is asleep. I'm Morgana McAllister, 42nd wing commander."

"Felix Dalkaila," He replies with a similar tone. "And I understand. Regardless I will then sleep to see if she somehow got my power and needs to be rescued."

"Let's go, then. Dragon, please follow, everyone else, as you were."

Okay, Felix will follow Gren-room-wards and search for a gray quartz crystal somewhere in her bed or something.

A tiny shard of gray quartz crystal can be easily found near or on Gren's bed.

Her room is filled with all sorts of strange mementos. A few other crystals, woodcarvings of fantastical creatures, a brass statuette that softly glows, a flower that turns towards the nearest person and hums softly.

Regarding the crystal, "Is that the thing?"

"Yes. How it go here?" Felix says, "Urgh, I need to find a place to sleep and create a couple of portals. I... it might be a good idea if I go alone, if she has a dimension it could have anything."

"Weird stuff tends to happen around Copycat. Not too often, but- If something weird has happened, decent bet she's involved. If you say it's dangerous, then yes, go alone."

"I need a place to sleep, and to know what Copycat looks like to identify her in the pocket dimension."

"Guest bed. Hm, we don't have portraits, but..." She gives a servicable description, from height to hairstyle to skin tone to her grey-green eyes.

Felix nods in agreement and lets himself to be conduct to a place to sleep in.

Yup, that is a pocket dimension.

He basically only stays asleep just long enough to create two portals and a quick check to see if he can make his own world technology (he can). One between Earth and his own dimension and another between his own dimension and Gren's.

Then he wakes up. Is there anyone around he can report this to?

The Witches have gone off to do other things, but McAllister left her assistant with instructions to 'tell me what he says when he wakes up'.

Felix explains that Gren indeed has become a Dreamshaper (his kind of magic dimension conjurer) and Felix is going to rescue her. He explains how portals work (requires you to do specific actions, this are the specific actions for the ones he made). If something happens, Felix can try destroy this body and it will take a week before he gets a new one up and running and they will need to rescue Gren themselves or keep her alive until Felix can try again.

Also, Felix checked and he can do conjure his amazing future technology and that is extremely good news even if this isn't the time for celebration.

If all that is understood, Felix will go over Gren's dimension.

They're unhappy about not knowing what's going on and demand fairly extensive explanation of dreamshaping. But they get the urgency. They will have little idea how to rescue Gren and will default to brute force once through the portal - unless this is unwise somehow?

(The technology is, indeed, good news. Perhaps they could get a quick sample of textbooks to throw at some engineers, if it will only take a moment?)

The pocket dimension can contain anything so maybe it will be filled with innocent children or monsters that look like innocent children. The way to solver the trouble is finding the Gren-projection that is in there and bring her through the portal. Felix can't stay dead so it makes sense for him to go instead of risking mortal lives.

Felix retrieves some books he created as a text, it is pretty random engineering, but it looks legit and rather advanced.

The maintenance crew is already oohing and aahing over it.

McAllister wishes him luck.

Felix thanks her, then he takes a deep breath and... into Gren's dimension.

Boreal forest, night sky. Rock formations here and there. Standard forest sounds and scents... But with a sort of metallic layer over them.

It would be pretty if he didn't fear of being assaulted by a monster or something.

He takes flight. Any sign of Gren?

The forest turns less boreal and more temperate towards a rocky hill in the center, where a building with huge glass windows shines with too much light.

...Did he see something out of the corner of his eye? A red glint from the forest?

Did he? Well... does it help if he sends some fire balls to illuminate in that direction?

If by 'help' you mean 'elicit a barrage of red beams', then yes!

Also, a near-silent metallic... Cyborg owl? Tries to dive-bomb him, scratching with claws and beak. This one doesn't seem capable of lasers.

"Eeep!" Felix says before dodging.

He counters with more fire.

The metal owl gets a shallow scratch in, but melts readily. Whatever was below seems to have decided to hide in the thicker trees for now.

Ok, Felix will start gathering electricity so he can be ready to strike. This is his life now, apparently, throwing thunderbolts at giant monsters.

The monsters do not attack again. He's being watched as he approaches the shining house(?), though.

What is the shinning house(?)? He flies closer.

It's like a bizarre blend between a church, a house, a castle, and an office building. Not really matching any of them, with features that try to clash with one another but still manage to produce a coherent and attractive, if odd, whole.

"Could be weirder" Felix says to himself.

Any obvious entrances? Signs of activity?

There's a big balcony on one side with huge glass overlook, might be a door. It looks like some kind of art gallery with lots of mirrors, maybe. There's also a very solid-looking barred door with a path leading down to the forest. There are scorch marks on and in front of it.

Well, he will enter through the balcony door. He will break it if necessary.

It opens fine.

It does look like some kind of art gallery in here. Various objects are strewn around. A flintlock gun, a blanket, a flute, a pantry full of mostly paper-wrapped foods, a wooden cart. A corner of the place is set up like a workshop with 'tools' that don't entirely make sense. The mirrors (and there are lots of mirrors) all reflect a version of things that's distorted in some way. This one reflects things as though they're made of tinted glass, that one makes everything white, this one covers everything in spikes...

There's a big spiral staircase leading down, if he wants to work through the near-maze of reflections and glass.

...Felix will not touch the suspiciously magical mirrors of potential doom. And touching the various objects should be avoided. Can he fly over the near-maze? Or mark the floor by scorching it with controlled fire?

He can mark the floor just fine. There are more mirrors on the ceiling, and there might be a clear path, but the light's playing tricks here and it's hard to be sure.

The sound of breaking glass comes from below, and a growl of frustration.

Urgh. Felix thinks. Call out and attract attention? Gren can't die in the dream, but not waking up could kill her...

Felix swallows and yells "Gren!?"

"What now?! Nightmare can't kill me with animal-Neuroi so, what, it's trying psychological warfare?"

"What? No. I'm here to rescue you. We need to talk you through a portal or you won't wake up."

"Yeah, sure, I believe you." She doesn't. More breaking glass. "I don't even know you."

"Felix Dalkaila," he says flinching at the breaking glass. "Why are you doing that?"

"Trying to use the mirrors, but it's not coming out right."

"Okay..." Felix says slowly since she is being cryptic. "anyway, all of this happening because an magical crystal touched you while you are asleep and while this place is real, your real body is out there still sleeping. If you don't go through a portal, your body won't wake up. That was why I came here."

"The mirrors are for copying, I can feel it. I'm not leaving until I get something to copy." More breaking glass.

"We can come back later? This won't vanish if we leave... Or maybe there is a way I could help? Or we can bring a mirror with us if it is safe?"

"Almost... Got it..."

Felix... waits... hopefully she won't do something stupid like attacking him.

...No breaking glass. "Woo!"

"Okay, what were you saying, you know how to get out of here?"

"There is a portal. This is a pocket dimension. If you leave you will wake up in your true body."

"Right, well, I'm not opening the front door again. Not after that bear. You can fly, given that you're on the second level?"

She floats upward over the spiral staircase, riding a metal broom-like thing. "Hello. Welcome to my dream, I guess."

"Yes, the wings aren't just for decoration." He follows. "What happened with the bear?"

"It chased me all the way up here on a freaking tree branch and nearly blasted through my door. Tried to climb, failed. Tried to break in, the windows are tougher than they look. It got bored and left eventually." She starts working through the maze. She can tell the mirrors and glass apart more easily than he can, perhaps?

They did mention she could look at magic, so she actually might.

"Wait, the bear was on a tree branch?"

"...No, I was. Witches can fly on anything sufficiently broom-like, so I snapped off a branch to escape."

"Oh, that makes way more sense. Anyway, once we go through the portal it should be safe. What else we might find along the way?"

"This place is giving me things that sneak up on you and stalk you... Let's fly nice and high, that should help."

"Okay, just go down if things start to get grayish. It means you hit the edge of the dimension. The horizon beyond that is illusion."

They fly. "So why are you in my probably-a-dream exactly?"

"I'm from another world, no idea how I got here, met some of other witches while fighting a Neuroi and they took me to your base. I recognized the situation when you didn't wake up and came here to rescue you. I'm immortal too, so it is safer than risking someone life."

"You're immortal, can I get that? Really don't want to keep having close calls with the Neuroi. They seem to have it out for me in particular, sometimes."

"Sure?" Felix says uncertain, "I mean we should get out of here and wait until some peace and quiet first. My immortality works by having a floating bolder with a fountain where I emerge from after a week of losing my body, so it is inconvenient to lose a body," beat, "but less inconvenient them death, obviously."

"Quite."

She seems to see the owl-thing that swoops down on them well before it should have been possible, and blasts it with the same lightning bolt that Sparky produced earlier. "Gah. It appeared from nowhere, tracking power says so. Smoke to monster. Stay alert."

Felix remembers to gather lighting. He also prepares to attack with fire.

"Argh. I hate new dimensions. You can't know what is going to jump at you."

"Is this supposed to be the physical embodiment of my mind? Because it got the lingering paranoia-watch-for-threats-on-every-corner right."

"Kinda, as far we can tell. We are not sure how accurate it is, recurring dreams seen to influence it somehow."

The portal shouldn't be very far ahead and Felix will open as soon they are close enough.

There's a pack of Neuroi-wolves waiting for them. Gren bombards them with lightning before presenting a shield and charging right the hell through, toward the portal.

...And when Gren's goes through the portal she "vanishes" only to wake up in the infirmary, safe and sound.

Felix also tries to charge through, using wind and fire to keep the neuroiwolves away.

These monsters are not that strong. He might have had trouble if he set out to destroy them, but getting past is easy enough.

Aaaand as soon he is past them, Felix closes the portal and goes through the other portal to report what happened.

'Highlander' McAllister is waiting tensely. "So?"

"Gren should be already awake..." Felix then explains what happened inside Gren's pocket dimension.

"...Yeah, she's moving again. Today's gonna be a good day after all, maybe. Are they all that strange? The dimensions."

"They can vary greatly and be quite arbitrary, one is a vast empty space filled with floating platonic-shaped crystals, plenty have monsters or various ambient effects that can be dangerous."

"Well. We appreciate helping deal with the magic thing that you either brought with you somehow or followed you."

"It was no problem. Now that was cleared up, we can continue and discuss how I can help you against the Neuroi?"

"I am not an engineer. My engineers are very excited about what you made earlier but I can't understand a word of it. I've already sent telegrams to several important people insisting that this is not a joke and luckily they take me seriously enough that they're sending a major and his staff from the Unusual Resources Division."

"Oh, good. Not sure how obvious the applications of dreamshaping are. But just a few ideas, they are excellent shelters. And they coexist with regular space but bypass obstacles, so I can create train networks or go through the Neuroi defenses. I can only expand the dimension, but I can create or destroy portal as needed. Also, some of my technology is very destructive, but... Well, I want to know more about the Neuroi first. Are they aliens or something?"

"The Neuroi don't have defenses as such. They just make it untenable to maintain human presence, wherever they move to. Train networks are still useful. Are you implying there could or will be more of these dimensions? Neuroi are probably aliens, as far as we can tell. Nobody saw them arrive, but they don't register as magic, all attempts to communicate with them or discern their language have failed, it's like they don't even have one. They turned Ostmark to ash and moved on to the rest of the world soon after."

"Maybe? I don't know how that piece of the dreamshard got in here."

"If they are not magic at all. I might be able to duplicate the Neuroi technology."

She is pretty alarmed by this prospect. "Don't try it without someone or something ready to absolutely obliterate whatever you produce. The last thing we need is an accidental new source of Neuroi."

Felix nods. "I promise not to."

"Good. Let's go see Copycat, I want to know what she makes of all this."

Felix follows.

Copycat/Gren is arguing with the nurse in the infirmary. "I am definitely fine. I need to go find Felix and talk about all the new magic." The nurse, however, is steadfast in Gren staying here for observation.

"Hello again, Gren. Wanna talk about magic?" Felix says, then to the nurse he adds, "she really is fine."

"I'll be the judge of that," she sniffs.

"We can talk here?" Gren suggests.

"Here is," Felix suggests.

If there is a chair somewhere he will turn it around so he can seat with his arms resting on it.

"I guess we should confirm that I do have the kinds of magic I claimed to have? I have three: Skymagery, which is responsible for the wings, weather-powers and fire-powers; immortality, which gives me a new body; and dreamshaping which gives me the ability to create a pocket dimension."

"The process of confirming you have those will just be me staring at you for a while, picking apart the layers. Tell me more about them?"

"Sure. Let's start with Skymagery, which is a bit complicated to explain.There are nine sky-gifts: flight; wind; warmth; cold; electricity; humidity; light; dark; forecast. Every skymage gets flight. I have the first six. They are constrained to the atmosphere, I can chill the air in the room, but not directly lower your body temperature. On top of that the gifts can come in greater form which gives an extra-boost. I have one greater gift, warmth, which manifest itself as control over fire. Skymagery is hereditary, working through some annoying rules such that my twin," there is a pang of pain in his face, "is genetically identical to me, but his greater gift is flight, he can just float instead of beating his wings. Following?"

If she looks close, Gren might notice some omissions but no contradictions to what he said, like the part that handles flight also comes with built-in personal weather protection, the ability to regenerate the wings into perfect condition (she could probably give herself regeneration and perfect health by copying it) and how the flight has a telekinetic component, apparently working through a combination of aerodynamics, short-range weather control and self-telekinesis.

"Following, but if you miss them a lot by the way, we have a teleporter on the team. Who owes me favors. Want me to call her?"

"Yes, please. I... can she do other universes?"

"I have no idea but it's worth trying."

"Okay," Felix says a little deflated, "So... my immortality, no, better if I explain dreamshaping first. So, dreamshaping, it is given when someone is touched by the dreamshard, a magical crystal, while the person is sleeping. Then start producing a pocket dimension around them, and they won't wake up unless their projected self leaves the dimension. After that happens they can expand the dimension controllably during sleep, with some limitations that are very idiosyncratic, some dreamshapers can only do one kind of terrain, others can't do buildings or can only do limit types of buildings, some can conjure magical things others can't. It varies. I have a easier time doing overdecorated luxury stuff and can't do lightbulbs and magical things. Once the dimension is expanded it stays that way. It is also possible to create portals between your pocket dimensions and others. Portals have keys, which are circunstances where they open, close, lock or unlock. Dreamshapers' Keys have themes, mine is warmth."

"I'm definitely seeing the broad strokes of all this. But it's all layered and smushed together so I'll just trust you on the details."

"I understand. So finally, my immortality. It's derived from my twin's dimension. Which is sort of... twisted version of the skymage culture afterlife. His dimension produces this floating bolders with a spring on top, if someone drinks from a unclaimed spring they become a skymage if they aren't one already and the springs sort of," they obviously have no concept of back ups, "records their minds constantly and if their body is killed a new one grows in the fountain. Oh, when the spring is claimed it grows a stone fountain with a statue of you on it. Anyway, a new body grows in the fountain in a week."

"The connection is extremely strong, but if it breaks somehow there is a safeguard where the fountain considers the body dead and starts growing a new one. While the disconnected body then throws up a pebble that grows into a new fountain. Coming here got me disconnected."

"...Damn? I assume you're unhappy but. Well. Ow."

"Damn. I mean, It's not like I want my friends and family to miss me, but it does mean that I will have to find the way back without any potential help from their end and if I don't go back fast enough there is going to be another me living his own life."

"I have no idea how to even begin to help with that other than offering sympathy. And getting Lytee over here to try and 'port you."

"That is enough, really. And thank you, I know that your world is dealing with worse problems. Far worse."

"Someone else suffering doesn't mean you're not. But, yeah."

"No," Felix agrees, "but it might be a good idea at least wait until I give you advanced technological knowledge to your word. Maybe my world's version of witchcraft too. If I'm too far away for my original fountain to keep a connection I'm definitely too far away for the Witch-Queens to catch me with a copy of their books."

"You might have to explain that. Trapping you, recording your actions? It's your choice but I definitely approve of technology. We've come a long way by ourselves though, I think."

"I am very impressed, but no reason not to advance you a century or two. Or at least a century or two by my worlds' standards. And the Witch-Queens are very powerful, but narcissistic, magic users that hunt down whoever steals their secrets, their means to do that are not truly known, but are so efficient that not a single government in the world manage to steal them. I wouldn't be surprised a single Witch-Queen could turn the tide in the war against the Neuroi, the problem would be convincing one to come fight them in the first place."

"...They sound like something to definitely not piss off. Let's not steal books from them in case they can detect it, is my instinct. The High Command has more authority."

"Reasonable. I am only considering it because I find it unlikely that even their magic is stronger than the magic of my immortality, so I should be too far away from them," he sighs, "technology is better at brute force destruction anyway."

He looks down.

"Do you have any other questions?" He says in the tones of someone that dearly wants to go away and be by himself.

"...None that can't wait."

"Okay... I already explained how to get in my dimension if you need me."

Felix leaves. He basically only had time to create a single room, a large living room, but still a single room before rescuing Gren. There is not even a bathroom in this little bit of pocket dimension that is apparently going to be Felix's temporary home.

Well, without anything better to do than useless crying, Felix naps on the couch, expanding his dimension further, giving himself a proper home. He also expands the dimension towards the sky and then towards the place where he left his pebble-slash-future-fountain. Then a portal is briefly created to allow the pebble to float upwards and into the safety of the pocket dimension. Felix will create a safe place to house it later.

Then he spends the rest of the time creating various pieces of technology and engineering books, until someone wakes him up.

About six hous. Some of the Unusual Resources Division have arrived and want to retrieve books and other things. He can go back to sleep after, if he wants, or not. Whichever he prefers. They'll be a day or two making plans for everything they want anyway, though 'everything' is a good start.

Felix is not inclined to outright hand to them some of the strongest weapons (Felix does not mention terms like "nuclear" to describe them), but he is willing to use them against the Neuroi directly if he can. It would be nice knowing more about the Neuroi capabilities first. Otherwise, Felix is quite willing to hand them a lot of magically created resources, at minimum things like various aircraft and better weaponry than they have developed.

Some laptop computers are created with the explicit purpose to show the URD various videos of what technology Felix can give them.

They have a dozen books entirely devoted to a thorough analysis of Neuroi.

...They're probably aliens, given what the UDF knows about them. And they're probably holding back for some reason. Anything that can do weather manipulation to create a fifteen hundred mile wide hurricane is using enough energy to make nukes look like firecrackers.

Felix will read these books, thank you.

And Felix is impressed (the correct term is terrified) with the hurricane of doom, but not impressed enough to hand out nukes like they are firecrackers. But he might hand out nukes like they are very necessary weapons of war, after thinking about it enough to satisfy his consciousness.

By the way, how is Gren doing?

Gren forced herself back to sleep, made a portal out, and has been going in and out of her dimension with her friend Scatter and a bunch of random objects. Apparently she can pull subtly changed and potentially magical copies of anything out of the mirrors, and it's even somewhat aimable. She now has a dozen tree branches in different materials including a softly glowing sticky thing she dubbed 'cloudfluff', each shaped more broomlike than the last, a glove whose outside is covered in live-looking thorns, a stained-glass sandwich, and other such things.

"Good morning, Felix. I can go away again if you want but I'm actually really excited about dreamshaping."

"Ooooh, that is very cool," Felix says about the possibly-magical objects, "And dreamshaping is extremely exciting. Have you checked the Neuroi-animals? Like, can you make friendly versions with dreamshaping?"

"I think it's - emotional. I can't not have a fear reaction looking at one. My hands twitch and my heart pounds and I want to fight- I think if I could be calm and steady in the face of one of them, I could do that, but no go for now."

"Oh, yeah, that makes sense. Anyway, how do you make the copies?"

"Almost the same mental action as copying magic! Except with a twist, no other word for it, and I can only do it by touching something to the mirror and then it ripples crazily while I try to pull the copy out and shatters if I screw it up. The mirrors come back and the glass goes away after a few minutes, which is convenient. I can make more mirrors, added a floor to the... Place... But I can't make a specific kind of mirror. Can you give me advice or is it too idiosyncratic?"

"It is very idiosyncratic, yes. Many dreamshapers have some luck trying to... fit whatever they are trying to do in a narrative sense. Like, I think of my dimension as a place that belongs to a insanely rich egocentric person and that lets me conjure a lot of things. Not sure how much of this interacts with your own magic, though, does the same mirrors produce the same kinds of results?"

"Yeah. Overgrown-with-plants mirror made the thorn glove. Glowy white mirror made the cloudfluff... Hm, I'll have to think about it."

"And how the properties mesh? Do they add up or find a middle ground? Can you copy the mirrors themselves? Maybe we can get cumulative magical effects that way."

"Mental framing I think. It has to be appropriate, but I can twist and aim, sort of. I think I could've turned the glove into a bonsai, too. I can't copy the mirrors themselves."

"Have you tried other magical objects?"

"Not yet. It's tricky and it's only been a few hours and I still have other duties."

"Oh, right. I might help you patrol at some point. Only you can use the mirrors? Or that wasn't tested yet?"

"Only me. They're mirrors and just mirrors, to everyone else."

"Well, what sort of interesting properties have you got so far?"

"The thorns on the glove are actually alive, they'll regenerate unless completely destroyed. I can do glass that reflects more light than actually hits it in all directions. Made a metal that the Unusual Resources guys are cooing over."

"Oooh, we have a way to turn light into electricity where we are from. What is so interesting about the metal?"

"Something about heat? I'm no engineer. It's also purple somehow."

"Can't say I know much either. Mostly what I know about heat involves why not set things on fire." Then he hastily adds. "Not that I have a problem with setting things on fire. Is just something you learn when you have pyrokinesis."

"Oh! If you can do gaudy things... Gold is actually really useful to Witches who might need a lot of power on short notice. It can store mana for later use."

"Oh, god. Someone should've told me that a lot sooner. I can conjure piles of gold. Is there anything else to it? Or just plain jewelry is fine?"

"Jewelry's about it. Gold, gemstones especially diamond and ruby, silver and other stones work mostly but are varyingly slippery and lossy."

"Ok. I can make s few thousand generic bracelets of solid gold. Does it need to be in contact or something like that? I could also add gold to anything, if that would help."

"Skin contact with bare metal or gem, is what's needed. A few different sizesmaybe adjustable enough to go around legs or small enough to be sewn into a shirt would probably be handy, and gold's easy to work if nothing else. We have... What, two billion people, one in a thousand Witches, two million. Not sure how many are in the military and still young enough to be combat-capable but maybe another tenth or twentieth of that. Two hundred thousand. Bet we'll get more if stored mana's an option and we really need it. We're not about to build a strategic mana reserve though, well, maybe. There's established systems for buying up mana from those who want money more than magic. So, twenty tons of stuff to start with and we can ask for more later? I'll add it to the URD's request list."

"I was already thinking of an a kind of bracelet that would fit anyone, but the particular design could be improved," Felix says then after thinking for a moment, "this is probably not practical even if it works that way, but does the gold needs to be all a single piece? And is there like... a size limit? I was thinking of something like a network of gold cables."

"Gotta be a solid piece."

"Ok, then. Not really feasible for a gold network then. We will have to settle with me being able to conjure El Dorado-- which you might never heard before, so settle on just being able to create literal mountains of gold. Plus advanced technology. Plus my own magic. Oh, hey, want to see the floating fountain where I emerge from after dying? Maybe you will be able to more easily copy my immortality from that."

"Doesn't sound copiable at all but it would be just lazy not to try."

"True, it's a lot of magic, it takes my brother 200 hours of sleep to make one."

This statement should leave Gren impressed now she has some idea of how much absurd level of power even half of that would means in terms of pure power.

"Yikes. That's a lot of mana alright."

"And since this is Fenris is more like, 250 hours instead. He can be very focused."

Felix leads her through the portal and through the most absurdly overdecorated house she has ever seen and then they are in a large topiary garden.

Gren feels it approach way before she sees it, a large boulder of rock, a stone fountain with a statue of Felix at the top.

It is the single strongest concentration of magic she has ever seen or even imagined.

She stops well before actually approaching it.

"Imagine you're a musician prodigy who can learn any instrument and song you hear in a few minutes. Then imagine being asked to imitate an orchestra and all its subtle layers and be louder than a thundercrack while you're at it."

"I would tell the person that the task is impossible to do it alone...?"

"Yeah... And I can't exactly produce a squad of twins from thin air. I wasn't pinning all my hopes on this, anyway. The rest of your help will have to do."

"It can't be that bad...?"

"It's a wall of sheer power. Pretty sure it's mostly indestructible too? I might make progress on it, slowly. But even if I do Witch magic is terrible at permanently magical things."

Felix frowns. "You can broken, but it will fix itself eventually, but well... Sorry, for wasting your time."

He looks rather shaken.

"It might just look that way because enchanting is supposed to be powerful. I couldn't duplicate one of my mirrors either, and I can barely make more cloud fluff without them."

Felix nods. "Do you think you would have anything to gain from the... individual layers? If you don't I will just store it away."

"Hm. Maybe... It's very grounded. I'm not great at pivoting things, but. Five minutes of taking notes?"

"Sure. As much you'd like. I only keep it locked up and secure in case of emergency."

She takes notes, even going so far as to draw out abstract diagrams.

If Felix seems interested she partially explains the system she made to chart spell structures.

Felix is in fact curious, dreamshapers have some sense of the things they make, but they can't really show that to other dreamshapers and would be good to have some confirmation of Fenris' analysis.

"Uh, fair warning, pretty sure that I imitate and don't copy directly."

"That is still more feedback than what we got back home. Fenris thinks he can imitate and spin out of the regular Skymage powers too, as long there is a immortal with the relevant magic. We have some shapeshifters and he was trying to get something that allows the wings to be shifted away."

"Hmm. I'll give my opinion on some things, sure."

"Thank you."

The fountain remains a ridiculous concentration of magic, but what she can understand from apparently fits Felix's description. She can catch the part that connects Felix and the fountain by looking at the space between the two.

Actually... Not really. At least not at first. There's so much there she's just writing out the general structure in words that make sense only to her.

If it takes too long, Felix will ask if it's okay if he takes out his "advanced technology gadget" to read something.

"Nooo problem. The reason it takes a while is, well, how long would it take you to describe a fancy monument as compared to someone's house?"

"Ah, I see, dreamshapers often have a problem with describing things too. I don't mind if it takes a while, worth the effort."

"It's more - the level of detail in there. A picture's worth a thousand words. Anyway, the bit that connects the fountain to you is redundant five or six times over."

"Sounds right, we think it's because Fenris has... high standards for what he considers immortality. He thinks we could have a similarly useful effect with just a tenth of the power spent."

"Probably right. At least half of this is redundant in some way, or stronger than it needs to be, or a self-repair mechanism- At least I think that's what those are."

"Yeah, I bet the self-repair mechanisms have self-repair mechanisms of their own, as I said, high-standards."

"There's a whole circle of repair. A fixes B fixes C fixes D fixes A. High standards indeed. I think I can pull some useful stuff out of here - help me work with the mirrors, maybe even enchant things without them."

"Uh, it might be a good idea to check the properties that the water and the stone have. The waters from a unclaimed fountain can be taken from it and drink anywhere, so mine might still have something of that left? And I assume a bit of stone would be less... an orchestra that sounds like thunder or whatever was the analogy you used."

"That was just a metaphor. The waters are inactive, now, just water. All the stuff that points at you might have previously pointed there, it sounds like. Looking at it a bit at a time would be worse - puzzle pieces and no overall view."

"Man, who knew magical reverse engineering would be so complicated," Felix says with a mocking tone, "I just do tacky furniture, no complication there."

"Engineering, pah. It's closer to art, sliding everything together to get more efficiency, or pivot it to a slightly different use. I have the stuff I use a lot down to very elegant efficiency with different variants for different power levels and so on."

"Efficiency is more of an engineering thing, but again, I have no direct way of knowing what it feels to be putting all these effects together."

"Engineering works with known properties generally, I think."

She holds one hand up to her ear. "The unusual resources guys have a list for you now apparently."

"Oh, okay. Do want to keep taking notes?"

"If there's low hanging fruit here I have it written down, so nah."

"Okay, I am going to put it away and meet the unusual resources."

"There's time for me to figure this out. Maybe the mirror will get me something to make me better at magic."

Fenris levitates the boulder-plus-fountain away and starts walking to the portal and then to the resources people. "Do you think there is any hard limit to what your mirrors can do? Or at least one that you have already run into?"

"Too soon to say. If I can do epic level stuff with them though it will be by reflecting a reflection of a reflection of a reflection a hundred times deep."

"Have you noticed if the multiple-chain reflections are harder to make?"

"A bit, but it might be 'too complicated' instead of 'too magic'. It's not like I ran controlled trials."

"Yeah, wait, have you guys invented the scientific method already?"

"Er, the experimental confirmation? I'm not a scientist but the Neuroi war kicked them into really high gear I think."

"I guess that is what is called here, but I will check with the scientists and send them the relevant literature if necessary. And, wow, I knew there was pressure, but still."

They leave Felix's dimension.

"The church flipped from punishing science to rewarding it. Europans working with Arab and Eastern and Albish scholars relatively peacefully. Twenty years since then, knowing that new things hurt the Neuroi so much more than old ones."

"That still a lot, even - or specially so - with a threat like the Neuroi. I wonder if you might've been comparatively more advanced already, or something. Maybe the church couldn't been as bad at persecuting people if there are witches around?"

"I wouldn't know. I think most everything big is in the last couple decades, years after the Neuroi, once we were semi-organized and had half a clue how to fight them."

"I think its impressive regardless."

"I spent a year and a bit mostly helping the boffins at London University. Some of the stuff they've come up with is really interesting. You have to be a genius or something to think of this stuff without outside help."

"Yes, I confess that I would naively assume to be impossible to think so many things so fast."

"It works because they literally do thousands and thousands of experiments a day, like, a hundred thousand people working on science all at once."

"Wait, are you trying to convince me that your society's advancements aren't impressive? That would be a first."

"I don't know. I'm just talking."

Nod. Where are the unusual resources people?

Arguing about Ohm's Law in this unused side room!

Gren follows him there. "They'll want me back anyway."

Ooh, nerds. How unsurprising. He will say hello and introduce himself if the argument looks doesn't uninterruptible.

They seem kind of oblivious. All talking over one another in somewhat old-fashioned English, one waving around a dagger and pointing it in different directions as a visual aid.

"GENTLEMEN!"

There's dead silence. 

"Your benefactor is here." Now he has their attention.

"Hello, I am Felix Dalkaila. Your benefactor, I guess."

"You have written all this yourself? A ludicrous claim, I'll tell you-"

"He is a visiting scholar bearing the work of hundreds, perhaps thousands, you fool!"

While an argument starts up again in the background, the more professional looking ones come up and greet Felix.

Felix greets back. Is there anything they want to ask him or maybe Felix should offer suggestions?

They want to know about everything. The largest number of voices call for an explanation of radio.

All Felix knows is what he remembers from reading on wikipedia. Radio waves is a kind of electromagnetic radiation of lower frequency than red. One modulates the various traits of radio waves to transmit them, then the waves hit a receiver which induces an alternate current on a circuit which can they use that to decode the signal.

He probably should just make them books next time he sleeps.

Yes... Books sound like a good start.

They'll need to make a circuit. And a detector. And transmission coding/decoding protocols, and all sorts of things. How to make electricity? Wait. What kinds of tools and materials will they need to learn how to make electricity more efficiently?

Oh, Felix knows more about that. He has a powerplant back home. At any rate, here is a brief explanation on How To Produce Electricity.

Notes are taken.

What about steam power? Are they on the right track with that? What's with this thermodynamic diagram thingy?

Well, steam power was in fact remarkably useful before the invention of more efficient technologies. In Felix's native worlds internal combustion and electrical engines are the ones used in large scale now.

...He doesn't understand the diagram. He is just a magical immortal weather-controller with conjuration powers from another world not an engineer, sorry.

"That's quite alright. Gentlement, let's not bother Felix over things he cannot control, we have plenty of books to study instead!"

"I don't mind being asked, just remember I am no expert."

"Edward will probably give you a knighthood for bringing knowledge to his shores anyway."

Edward being the king? Sorry, he didn't get acquainted with who is important here yet.

"Edward III is the king of the most important nation, that of England."

This starts a semi-good-natured political argument. Gren rolls her eyes. "This happens a lot, we'll have to let them get it out of their system."

"Nah, it's okay. I probably should be aware of the political map. If only so I don't step on anyone's toes."

"I'm going to go to my portal and poke the mirrors some more."

"Good luck. Can you send me somewhere where I can learn who are the movers and shakers? Or was there something else I was supposed to do?"

"Maybe the captain would be able to tell you that, but she's, um. Probably busy. Lytee might know the political landscape too. She's actually our teleporter. Should I introduce you?

"Yes, please. Do you think she can...?"

"...No. Probably not, given what I've copied off her. But maybe."

"Alright. Show me the way."

She walks along. "So, movers and shakers. The UDF is the most powerful entity in the world. Its top brass live and work in London. Most nations' kings kept many of their powers, but everyone has heavy taxes and other duties to the UDF now."

"Huh, how far reaching is the UDF? Both in terms of mobilizing witches and the associated nations?"

"There still isn't quite a Witch draft. It's just by far the best paying job most of us can get. And I know the Venetius Vi is king only in name now, as the UDF is working on mass evacuation of his territory. It's undefendable. I don't know a good quick answer to 'how much power do countries surrender to the UDF' other than 'lots'."

"I was thinking more in terms of... physical area of influence. Does the UDF reach other continents?

"Yeah. Most major countries signed on at least as a contributor. The Unity Mother formed the UDF - it's kind of legendary, how persuasive she was to everyone. Though we were fearing the Neuroi would overrun everything at the time."

"Yeah, it is... kinda of weird that they didn't, actually."

"We got organized. Fought back. They used to be weaker than they are now, and there were less of them..."

"Ah, good thing. I wonder how much information I can get about them through dreamshaping."

"...Are you good at fighting?"

"I have good reflexes, but I am not used to. Back home I could do well with just... the wings look really intimidating."

"If you're messing with anything connected to Neuroi you might have to do a lot of fighting very suddenly."

"Ah, yes. I don't think I am completely useless, but I haven't been in many life fire situations."

"How are you planning g to use dreams having to study them anyway? We don't have any samples of dead ones, they turn into light and dissolve away when they die or bits break off."

"They might have information in a format that is close enough to written that I could try translating. I can actually access information from people's minds, but it takes such a long time that it is usually not worthy it because my power doesn't handle format conversion really well in that direction."

"...And you can make 'written' things by Neuroi?"

"Possibly, if they are doing any writing at all I should be able to grab hold of it, which would informative. It's a simple test."

"Let me get Dragon and Sparky so if this somehow makes a Neuroi core appear we can blow it up..."

"Fair point. I can tell if I can make it without making it, but that might still be dangerous."