Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 75457 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75457 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
“We may owe—”
I missed who they seemed to owe an apology to in all the whispered explosions but there was just too much going on as they all spoke at the same time.
When it just kept going, I leaned toward Klynn with an expectant look on my face that seemed to make him want to laugh. His casual shrug had me reminding myself that we were at work, but I paid attention and did my best to look professional as he answered my unasked question. “Our genetic history is not clear. There are many thoughts and opinions about where we developed and what Earth was like. Several smaller factions claimed Earth must have other magic users but a larger portion of our academic leaders thought we were the only magic users on either planet.”
Ah.
Should I not have let that cat out of the bag?
Between the portal opening up and more people going through from both sides, they were going to learn about everyone else. The local dragons and mages on Earth weren’t subtle enough to ignore forever and eventually even they were going to notice some of their neighbors weren’t strictly human.
“Do I need to apologize for…anything?” Shocking them? Pissing everyone off? Fucking with their textbooks?
Klynn gave me the tiniest grin, thoroughly enjoying himself if I was reading him right. “They will recover…eventually.”
Smart-ass.
I loved it.
“We’ll be patient.” At the very least, it gave me time to eat breakfast which was surprisingly good even though the bacon was a bit odd. But it was more like European bacon versus the US odd and not like I was on another planet probably eating some kind of semi-domesticated dinosaur.
By the time we’d finished our meal, the historians had settled down and were all looking at us expectantly. I wasn’t sure if they thought I could read their body language or if it was some kind of social custom I was missing, but I couldn’t read minds, so I turned to Varrick again. “I think to start with I should tell you that the books I brought with me are an overview of what we know about Earth’s ancient history. This is just the human portion but the government is working on putting together the research on what we know about the other magical communities on Earth.”
Gathering up all the information in one encyclopedia set was just a fairly recent project that wasn’t anywhere near done. Some communities had better records than others but actually getting them to agree to talk about it was a pain in the ass.
Nearly everyone perked up at that, literally sitting straighter all at once like we were in a fucking cartoon.
Varrick nodded, managing not to look like a startled penguin. “Thank you for that. It will give us a good place to start.”
That seemed to signal something to the other historians because they all glanced around at each other like they were having silent conversations even though I knew they couldn’t do that except with their mates. After a few seconds, they settled down and Varrick turned back to me. “Do any of your other magic populations claim to have made the portal?”
Oh.
“No.” I could almost feel the wave of disappointment that went through the room. “It’s possible there was someone early in Earth’s history that made it but we have no way of knowing.”
And the blank expressions were back.
“We have long gaps…think hundreds of thousands of our years…where we know almost nothing about what was happening to sentient species on Earth at that time. Smaller groups of magic users that evolved have some records and oral histories but we just don’t know enough. The Earth has gone through numerous major disasters and climatic upheavals that make it impossible to figure out through regular scientific means.”
I thought that part made sense but Varrick looked a bit too confused. “What do you mean?”
Okay…different planet different disasters?
“One example is that our solar system is ringed by an asteroid field and we regularly end up getting hit by them.” I should’ve taken more science electives in college. “There are indications on our planet that several times over millions of years, the impacts were so large they killed off most species.”
What else?
Oh.
“It is also volcanically active and has storms that are incredibly strong.” We really were a mess. “Magical structures would probably survive better, but whole civilizations could’ve been lost in our ancient history and we wouldn’t know.”
At least not through scientific means.
“We have some written and oral histories passed down, but here there is also a significant lack of information about certain periods of time.” Varrick paused and glanced around the room, seemingly telling everyone to settle down and listen even though they already knew this part.
But I didn’t and I needed to know it to be able to pass it along to everyone back home.