"Where you're from," Tolten supplied, gently. This, at least, he had no misgivings about. "I come from a world called Plank. I know it must seem so strange, but it's really not. The sorcerer who raised me...he was from a world alien to Plank. There were others, too. Magic is common there, and knights and kings and mages and monsters. Magic where I come from it's just...it's energy. It exists in nature and in every living thing. Thirty years ago we...we discovered how to harness it as a clean, renewable energy source."

The young king didn't want to scare Mikado away. He liked Mikado! He was quiet and earnest and kind and that was the sort of person that Tolten needed in his life.

"I've known there was at least one other world for a while now. It isn't so strange to think there could be dozens, or hundreds. And it explains all the oddness...."