Honestly, the first time Lucas met with Knight Enchanter, who led the mages in the army, he had a very good first impression. His world’s stereotype of the robbed, bearded, old man with a funny hat was nowhere to be seen in the crisp military presentation that the twenty something year old man put forth. In the dress uniform and sporting a rather awesome goatee and short dark hair, the only thing that stood out as strange were his eyes, which were glowing red.

That part was distracting though, however when Lucas asked about it he was told that it was had to do with the amount of magic the man was holding. Honestly, as a biologist, Lucas could not resist making his first question how well he could see with light actually coming out of his eyes. Apparently, the man could see just fine, which made no sense from either a biologists or a physicists point of view, but he would leave that for now.

“Now that I have answered that,” the mage laughed, quite amused by Lucas’s sudden question. “Let me introduce myself, I am the Knight Enchanter Julian, it is my pleasure to meet you hero.”

Julian bowed smartly, and Lucas returned the greeting, swallowing his distaste for the ‘hero’ title. He would just have to get used to that part…

“Well, allow me to be honest with you Lord Julian,” Lucas said to the mage as he, Lady Versi, Lady Almistraus, and Lucas sat down in one of the castles many rooms.

“Please, I am of common birth,” Julian lifted his hand to pause the conversation. “I would prefer you don’t use my title at all, but if you must, ‘sir’ will be sufficient for a knight.”

“Sir Julian then,” figures that when Lucas especially tried to be respectful, even if he had failed at the start, the other person would be fine with casual talk. “As I said, allow me to be honest, I know absolutely nothing about magic or your organisation.”

Julian laughed, “Well to be fair, most people do not. Though, to satisfy my own curiosity, do you not know because you never studied it, or does magic not exist in your world?”

“The latter, probably.” Lucas hedged his bets a little, for all he knew magic existed and just simply not interacted with.

“Ah, well then allow me a basic explanation.” Julian calmly described a rough idea of how magic worked. “This is simplifying greatly, but the human soul and the human body are not quite put together as a complete whole. The interaction between the body and soul generate magic that can be directed by the mind.”

Well, I understood the words he was using… Lucas thought to himself, and asked, “what, precisely, is magic?”

“That is hard to say, easily.” Julian thought for a moment, “It isn’t an energy so much as a physical thing, but that physical thing isn’t totally here in this world but it isn’t out of this world either. It is both at once, by moving the part of magic that exists ‘elsewhere’ we are able to affect changes ‘here.’”

“Fascinating…” Lucas murmured, that explanation made him wish he had studied physics more, because he was willing to bet such a thing would be revolutionary to anyone who could understand it in the modern world.

“Well,” Julian smiled ruefully. “It isn’t as great as it sounds. While everyone can learn magic, most people cannot really use it to any significant degree, and on the flip side there are those who use it as naturally as breathing.”

“That is fairly normal for all talents.”

“True, but with magic those at the higher end have interesting problems.” Julian’s smile turned bitter, “as an example, I know that you are not here to talk about magic at all.”

“How the hell did you know that?” Lucas exclaimed, then immediately berated himself as an idiot. This is why he could not do politics, he was more interested in the “how” than the fact that he was probably about to get his head chopped off!

“Let’s say that I heard some whispers.”

Lucas looked questioningly at Lady Almistraus who explained, “rumors say that the ‘elsewhere’ he mentioned contains ‘others’ that no one knows much about, except that they sometimes whisper to magic users about events either in the present, past, or future. Honestly, I never really believed it, so this surprises me quite a bit…”

“It is just as she said,” Julian agreed. “But you do not need to worry, frankly, I don’t care much either way. The Duke has nothing to do with the day to day workings of the military, even his son does not command as much as he would have you think.”

Julians eyes glittered as he leaned forward suddenly, his noble bearing replaced with that of a rapacious look. “But since I don’t care, I want to be paid for my risk.”

“You do realize,” Lucas drawled sarcastically. “That as someone who was stolen from a different world, I am essentially penniless right?”

That was greeted with a scoff, “I am sure the two beautiful Ladies at your side would support you, but I do not want money anyway.”

“Then what do you want?” Lucas growled, tired of the run around.

“Knowledge.” Julian answered, “The magic of life is the most difficult of all magics, trying to make things grow or heal or perhaps even die by stopping life, all of those are nearly impossible.”

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“What, do you expect me to be your private tutor? For the record, it took me decades to learn the knowledge I have, and many of my teachers were professionals in both biology and in teaching itself.” Lucas paused for a second thinking, then continued poking holes in the request. “Let’s say that I did agree, and I could teach efficiently, you lack the technology to observe many of things I would discuss, unless you can replicate the effect through magic.”

“A compromise, perhaps.” Lady Versi interjected, “One day a week, split between you teaching him this ‘biology’ and him teaching you magic?”

“If that is all I can get, I guess I have no choice.”

“Wait, what the hell is this about teaching me magic?”

The two talked over each other, and Lucas looked to Lady Versi. This was not something that had come up in their previous discussions! On the other hand... He had to admit that not only was he curious, but if the magic description had been accurate and meant what he thought it did… It might be the only way he could get home.

“I suppose I should not complain,” Lucas sighed, even if his feelings were not quite agreeing with his words. “I can agree with that, but I may not even be able to use magic at all.”

“Well that won't bother me,” Julian laughed. “Gets me out of having to teach you after all.”

“Fair enough, then you will support my plan?”

“Of course,” Julian straightened his coat and regained his composure. “To be honest, you probably won’t even have to put Lady Versi on the throne, have you noticed the rather conspicuous lack of the Duke’s first son?”

“I suppose, but I did not think much of it.” Lucas was not very socially aware after all…

“Indeed,” Lady Almistraus chimed in. “Considering that he is set to inherit, I would expect him to be at his father’s hand, to learn from him, that would be tradition at least.”

“As I recall the Heidall made a rather good impression on my side of the family.” Lady Versi said as she thought.

“I presume that this ‘Heidall’ is the first son?” Lucas asked to confirm, not liking being the only one in the dark.

“Indeed,” Julian nodded. “He would likely be a better choice than Lady Versi, as wonderful as she is.” Julian bowed slightly towards Versi and Lucas noted that bowing was probably a more difficult maneuver sitting down.

“Why would he listen to me though?” Lucas thought it unlikely that the man’s son would be happy with his father being unseated, even if it did give him the duchy. Well, he wouldn’t know much about it, but even if Heidall would listen to him, Lady Versi still seemed the better choice to Lucas.

“Because there is no other way for him to take the throne having being banished to a monastery by his father for disobedience.”

Versi seemed shocked, “When did this occur? I have heard nothing about it!”

“Last year sometime?” Julian estimated, “as I am often on the front line, I could not say for sure.”

“And why would he be a better choice than Lady Versi?” Lucas ignored the banishment for now, first he had to know why he should bother.

“Lady Versi is related to the Duke, but she is not native to this kingdom.” Julian explained, “Some nobles will use that as an excuse to rebel, or at the very least to make your life difficult. The more that we keep to the line of succession, the more stable this transition will be.”

Terrasin nodded, “the last thing the city needs is more instability.”

Lucas sighed, he was not quite comfortable with this plan but he did not know the politics of the situation and had no confidence in his ability to figure it out. Management was so much more simple, you told someone to do something, they did it, and it either worked or didn’t. Politics was a minefield of friends and enemies and backstabs and deals and who the hell knew what else.

“Well, I had to meet with the priests anyway,” Lucas ended up agreeing. “So I have an excuse to go and meet him anyway.”

“Before you go,” Julian eyes went wild again, and with the shining red glow it looked positively demonic to Lucas. Though apparently actual demons rarely had red eyes, so that was one stereotype down… “I have some questions that I beg you to answer!”

“Sure, I suppose.” Lucas shrugged, “but why do you think I can answer them?”

“Once long ago I asked the whispers these questions and they told me that I would learn the answers at the dawn of the next era. In other words, the summoned hero would answer them!”

“That seems a bit of a stretch… But go ahead.”

“First, how are babies formed?”

Lucas blinked, he had certainly not expected that. He had really, really not expected that… Wait, why was he asking this question in the first place? Science progressed by humanity having problems and looking for solutions, there was little reason to think this question did not have a root somewhere.

Lucas said as much and Julian answered, “Magic is produced from the interplay of the body and soul, and those are created in this period. This answer may give me the ultimate understanding of how we use it!”

Lucas smiled, this fervor for discovery… He and Julian might get along well, anyone with the desire to learn and grow was a worthwhile person in Lucas’s book. Though he did worry about his ability to teach…

“Well I think we can skip over the first part, as I am guessing I don’t need to explain that part to you.”

Julian laughed and nodded, Lady Versi blushed, but Terrasin just rolled her eyes.

And Lucas found himself describing the process of fertilization and development, including some sidetracks to the idea of chromosomes and cell structure, and the faces of everyone around simply became more and more lost as he talked. “Regardless, it isn’t until… Hmm, haven’t thought about human development for a while… I would like to say the fifth week? Maybe it was six, whatever, the exact point doesn’t matter, but that is roughly the time that the fetus begins to have activity in the brain they have been developing.”

Julian held up a hand, to stop Lucas in his rambling lecture. He seemed slightly grim, “Apparently, I did not know what I was asking. That collar is an artifact of legendary proportions, and even with it, many of your words cannot be translated. I think I am starting to understand why no one has ever been very successful with life magic, but having listened to you… I think it can work, there are points you have mentioned that I can understand, and they give me some interesting ideas…”

Julian sighed, “But as much as I would love to have you explain it all to me, I think I should accompany you to the monastery. This deal is going to be incredibly profitable for me, so I should uphold my end of the bargain.”