"But that's not magic, that's science," Carter protested, frowning. "Magic is...hocus pocus and wizards and things appearing out of nowhere." Admittedly he'd been enthralled by card tricks and slight of hand, but enough time around Newkirk taught him that most of magic was making your target look in the wrong place and then moving your fingers very quickly. He'd lost a lot of petty possessions to that kind of 'magic'.

"And it's not ellektiks, it's electricity. It's just a natural thing like lightning. Magic is something...something different." He had his hackles up slightly. The man was using a lot of big words, words that made lots of sense, but you couldn't just say something was magic. If it was magic it was something impossible and engines and computers were very possible things.