"About six billion. Varyingly from poverty to wealth; It's 2010 in case that means anything to you. Cars, skyscrapers, electricity. And beneath that all is the mythic earth where things run animistically and the Nobles fight the Valde Bellum against the Excrucians. We're... Defectors from the Excrucian side of the war."

"Thank you, ma'am. Can you tell me more about the war?"

"The Excrucians - that is us, with the star-eyes - have objections to reality as a whole and want to tear it down. At least, the Excrucian Host does, which is where all the Warmains and most of the Strategists and some of the Decievers ally together. They say the creator of reality stole something from us, something that made reality correct, and we stole it back and broke it because it was a crime against the void and now reality is fundamentally incorrect, it's glitched -"

"It's a load of bullshit philosophy that hurts people. Fun, but not something you should play at."

"It's terrible. It kills pieces of reality, things like Dogs or Christmas or Swords. It Excruciates them and then they're gone. Forever."

"It's a bad habit we're all struggling to kick, because reality is so very broken."

"Thank you. And can you tell me anything about the Nobles and the Valde Bellum?"

"The Valde Bellum is the name of the war between the Nobles and us. The Nobilis are responsible for maintaining reality against us; each of them is given responsibility over an Estate, like Clocks or Fire or Kidnapping, and told to protect it from being erased from reality. They're the tools of the Imperators, which are like the deep deities of reality and mostly work in the Deep Mythic to keep reality mostly hanging together."

"Thank you, ma'am. And you have electricity but not spaceships, is that correct?"

"There are interstellar spaceships but they're a Noble thing. Earth is a center in the Valde Bellum so there's a lack of travel elsewhere, though transit is always notionally possible."

"Thank you, ma'am. And is there anything else you think she might want to know about?"

"Well, we're still keeping an eye on Alasha. Other than that no."

"I'm not sure I understand what you mean by that, ma'am."

"My curse is acting up because I did some reckless things, so now I need to be careful or I could be killed by some unlikely coincidence. I'd come back, but... less of me."

"-yes ma'am. I expect Master Deskyl will want to ask about that, when she wakes up."

"Alright."

"We just have to be on our guard for the next day or so. It's not a big deal, we've done it before."

"Yes ma'am. Do any of you have any questions for me?"

"Not at the moment we're quite busy. Perhaps in the morning."

"Yes ma'am." She turns back to Deskyl and goes still.

They confer quietly and don't disturb her for some hours. 

Deskyl sleeps without stirring for two and a half hours, and then comes awake all at once, giving the other occupants of the room a wary once-over and then signing to DZ. What?

    You teleported us to a different world, ma'am. These women have a curse of some sort but they don't seem dangerous. You meditated to help them find the one in the black coat and then fell asleep, you haven't made any decisions about what to do here yet.

Okay. She glances back over at the group.

The one in the black coat bounces over. "Hello," she says, "I'm Alasha, who are you?"

"Give her space for pity's sake -"

Deskyl's on her feet before Alasha covers half the distance; she doesn't draw her 'saber this time but she's clearly prepared to. She narrows her eyes when the woman speaks, and shakes her head minutely at DZ when the droid starts to translate, then gestures for her to answer.

    "This is Sith-apprentice Deskyl, ma'am."