“Putting the stupidity aside,” Phisola shifted in her seat, “I have no choice but to admit that harvesting lightning is very impressive. But still, it’s really funny. You say your people don’t know how to heal a wound properly, yet you know how to summon lightning.”

“Oh, we do know how to heal wounds. It just takes time.”

“Closing the wound and letting it heal all by itself is something completely different from healing it. You’re just waiting for a natural process to occur. That hardly counts as an achievement.”

“We know how to hurry the process up.”

“Still, you’re counting on nature to do the heavy lifting.”

“Can you heal a wound without magic?” Eric asked, looking a little bit smug.

“What is the point of such a stupid question?”

“You’re judging my people based on something your people can’t do either. There’s no magic in our world. How else are we supposed to do it? Actually … technically, there are ways, but our science isn’t so advanced yet. Not in that field. We are working on it, but it will take time.”

“Maybe you didn’t hear me when I said it, but I have a sneaking suspicion that magic does exist in your world. It’s just that you people are too stupid to notice it.”

“Mages can sense magic, right?”

Her eyes opened a little bit wider, “Yes. I’ve already explained that.”

“Well, there are no humans who can sense magic. Not even here, where we know that magic exists for sure. Can all the races do magic in this world? Aren’t there any exceptions?”

“All sentient beings can do magic. Hell, you don’t even have to be a person to do it. Even some animals can do it.”

“What about the people? All the races can do it without exception?”

“Yes. If Orcs can do it, then everyone can. Hell, even some ogres know how to do it. They don’t know how to do advanced magic, but they can manage some simple spells.”

“Hmm … there has to be something I’m missing there …”

“Oh, have no doubt about that. You’re missing a lot.”

“But that does explain it. If even some animals can do it, then we’d see them doing magic in our world. But that’s not the case.”

“As if you could observe all the animals in your world.”

“Well … we can,” he smiled widely as he said that, “We have settled in every part of our world and have found every life form there is to find, yet we’ve never encountered anything like … ok, some things may look like magic. Like how chameleons can change the color of their skin. But our scientists have figured out how it’s done, and it’s not magic.”

“And how it’s done?”

“I don’t know. I’m not a scientist.”

That made her laugh for a while: “Damn, you really take authorities seriously, don’t you?”

“I see no reason to doubt them as long as they’re constantly inventing new stuff using science. They have to be doing something right to show constant results. I’ll start doubting them when they stop doing their work right.”

“And in the meantime, they can say whatever they want, and you’ll be perfectly fine with it.”

“I don’t know how it is where you come from, but we all have our roles in the society. Thinking I’m the smartest man in the world and questioning everything isn’t how you move forward in the world. There has to be some level of trust in society.”

“Were you happy with your life? Before coming here.”

“Well, yeah!” He gave her a nod in confirmation, “I have no reason not to be. Well, had no reason not to be. There’s a lot to complain about being stuck in a cave full of predators, but I was very happy with my life back home. I only lacked a significant other, but I’d take care of that sooner or later. I just had some other priorities that I had to sort out first.”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“You enjoyed your duties?” She rested her head in her hand and gazed at him with interest.

“I can’t say I really enjoyed my duties per se, but I did enjoy that kind of life. I like being a diplomat. Meeting other cultures and learning about different people and their beliefs, I like that. I love visiting different places.”

“Your world must be a very peaceful place to be so naïve.”

“Well,” Eric started scratching the back of his head, looking as if he was guilty of something, “our world isn’t that peaceful, to be honest. There are wars and conflicts all over it. Even places that have no wars are infested with violent crime and oppression. But my country was peaceful and prosperous, so I never had to deal with that kind of thing. And even on diplomatic missions, I was always escorted from one safe haven to another. I’m not ignorant of how violent life can be, but I do admit that I never had to deal with it.”

“Has anyone ever looked at you the wrong way for being an outsider?”

“No. I bet many people would, but I’ve only been visiting friendly places. For example, I never went to negotiate with our enemies. The first time someone looked at me in a strange way was in this world, but that’s understandable. After all, we’re aliens from a different world, so of course the natives will be wary of us. And the people in this world have never seen snow, so of course they’ll freak out.”

“Snou? What is that?”

“You don’t know about it either? I guess we really did hit the equator. Snow is essentially frozen rain. If the outside temperature is very cold, the rain in the clouds will freeze a little bit and turn into snow. It will turn from liquid into a semi-solid state. You could consider it something between normal water and ice.”

“I know what ice is, but I’ve never heard of that.”

“It’s something that apparently doesn’t exist in this world, but we think it’s just that the climate is different here. If you travel far north or south, I bet you’d find a place with snow.”

“It depends on the location?”

“Oh yeah!” He smacked himself in the forehead hard, “I’m so stupid!”

“That you are.”

“You can find snow on mountains! There’s this huge mountain in Greadinall, and you can see snow on top of it! The white thing covering tall mountains is the snow!”

“Geez, relax a little bit! That’s not something to be excited about. But what does that white cap do with the natives looking at you funny?”

“The portal opened in one of the least hospitable places in our world, where the temperatures are so cold that the snow lasts all year long. They saw a frozen landscape full of snow they’d never seen before, and it freaked them out. That’s why they think we live in hell. And can you guess what lives in hell?”

“Demons, of course.”

“Yeah! That’s what started the confusion. Ok, you have horns, so you being a devil makes sense somewhat. But look at me!” He pointed at himself with both hands, “I’m not scary at all! Hell, I’m weak! I’m struggling to deal with a single dino here, something I bet natives would have much more success with. Sure, we are tall on average compared to them, but that’s hardly a reason to see us as demons. If they’d call us giants, that would be great. That even sounds cool. But they went for demons instead. Also, not to be racist or anything, but demons don’t have white skin. They’re red or whatever.”

“What skin color has to do with being a demon?”

“Once again, I’m not trying to be racist here, but aren’t angels always portrayed as white? How can you look at me and say: yeah, that white guy is definitely a demon?”

“Do you even know how creatures become demons?”

Suddenly, Eric got a worried expression on his face: “Aren’t they born like the rest of us?”

“After the entire race becomes demonic, yes. But demonic races aren’t created, they’re made.”

“What’s the difference?”

“You told me that your people used to live in heaven, right?”

“That’s just a fairytale.”

“But you do have myths like that, right?”

“Yes, but nobody takes that seriously. It’s just our imagination running wild.”

“Ok, let’s forget about that for a moment. Are there any other stories of creatures being cast out of heaven in your culture? Or paradise, or however you call it.”

“No, we’re the only sentient creatures in our myths. Well, monotheistic myths. Pagan myths are too numerous and complicated to count.”

“Are you absolutely sure?” She raised her eyebrows at him, “I bet some other creatures got cast away, too. It doesn’t have to be the entire race, maybe a certain individual got cast out.”

“Hmm … can’t really remember.”

“What about the angels? Are there any angels in your myths?”

“Yes, there are angels.”

“Did any of them happen to get kicked out of heaven? Maybe one of them disagreed with gods or something?”

“There’s … hmm … there’s this one … what’s his name … there is a story of an angel being kicked out of heaven for starting a rebellion …”

“Go on, I’ll wait,” she said, leaning back with a knowing look.

“There is the story of an angel starting a rebellion against god, but he lost and got cast away. I think … Lucifer … yeah, Lucifer is his name!”

“Good. Now, tell me, what happened to that angel once he was kicked out of heaven?”

“Well, I don’t really know,” he shrugged, “the stories don’t really mention him that much after he got kicked out.”

“Did he die once he was out?”

“No, he was banished. Together with some other angels who rebelled against the god.”

“So he didn’t die. Was he still an angel once he was banished? Or did he change somehow?”

“Hmm … he’s mostly portrayed as the bad guy in the stories. He used to be an angel, but he’s mostly portrayed as evil now.”

“As a demon, you could say.”

“Yes!” Eric pointed his index finger at Phisola in agreement, “He’s kinda portrayed as a demon in the stories.”

“In other words, he became a demon once he was banished from heaven.”

“… I guess you could say so. Is that how it works? Were your people banished from heaven, too?”

“Not really banished as much as we’ve destroyed it. But my people aren’t important now. You see, that angel you mentioned turned into a demon once he was cast out of heaven. Do we agree on that?”

“Ok.”

“Now, if that angel became a demon the moment he was cast out, what makes you think your people are any different?”