“Let me start by asking you a few questions first. You said you know about other worlds, do you also know about the galaxy and the universe? What I mean is did you find out about other worlds by reading about them in some old text, or did you see them for yourself?”

“Mostly by the rediscovery of old lost knowledge, and the confirmation by Lady Adrestia. Why?”

“I see. I’ll explain and if the matter gets too complicated you can ask me to explain, and I’ll do it if I can but if not I’ll ask you to trust me on that part. Because some explanations would only confuse you even more.”

“Alright then, let us begin.” Nathaniel was excited while Borka regretted her decision to sit down.

“I should start by saying that the universe might be infinite. Meaning there are infinite galaxies, with infinite worlds out there if true. The thing is we can measure only a part of it, around 13 billion light-years to be precise. A light-year measures the distance light can travel in a year. I already explained what light is and how fast it was, so that means the distance I just told you about is the part that we can observe.”

“And it is called the observable universe, and the reason we can only observe the universe in such a finite distance is because that's how old the universe is. Now if you are wondering what came before I will explain in due time, but the important thing being that sphere that we can observe, as there are many galaxies strewn across it.”

“Now a galaxy is a gravitationally bound collection of stars, gas, and most importantly dark matter. The easiest way to explain gravity is to look around you, it is the reason we are standing on this planet. Everything with mass gravitates towards each other. The more mass something has the bigger that force. While we can’t feel that force between us, something like the size of the planet has a constant pull and is what keeps us from just floating away.”

“I think I understand your meaning, do go on.”

“So another thing we know is that the universe is expanding. Imagine a piece of cloth that is being stretched out. Now back in my world, that expansion was proven to be accelerating. Meaning it was going faster and faster. What do you think happens to a piece of cloth you try to pull apart?”

“It gets torn?”

“Exactly, but the problem is that the universe isn’t getting torn and what more it keeps speeding up its rate of expansion. The reason for that acceleration is a little something called dark energy. Don’t ask me what dark energy is because it was never actually observed. But the effect it exhibits was. Imagine that I am behind you touching your back, you can’t see me and confirm that I am there but you feel my hand. Now, this dark energy is constantly being created and is filling the universe. But one of the basic laws of the world is that you can’t create something from anything.”

“Imagine the cloth again, and as you stretch it, it just keeps expanding in size. That makes no sense and yet is precisely what is happening as we speak.”

“There are many theories about this topic but here comes my newly minted one. In the few days I have been in this world you have shown me magic, something that did not exist in my world. Now, remember when I spoke about galaxies and dark matter. The thing is the dark matter is a name some people had coined for a big something that is out there. That something interacts with gravity and it has mass, but the problem is that it doesn’t interact with light. Hence it is invisible.”

Nathaniel’s eyes went wide on that. “You don’t mean that..”

“Yes! It’s the matter you call the weave, the very thing that allows the manipulation of the regular matter!” Ana interrupted him, her excitement spilling over.

“Now from what you told me of the Sea of Chaos as you call it, I suspect that it is either a form of sub-space or a parallel dimension to our own. And it is connected to our reality through the weave, meaning only those who have a connection with the weave can enter the Sea. Unless they are dragged inside by someone or something else that is.”

“So you believe the dark energy you explained, and believe the weave is connected to the Sea?”

“Yes, but I think there is more to the connection between them but I will need to talk to Adrestia to confirm that. But if my theory is right, the Sea of Chaos or better called the Entropic Dimension is the reason there is dark energy in the universe and the reason it has a constant density. Because you can’t have chaos without order and vice versa. Still, I am no closer to figuring out what exactly the weave is or how it came to be. But still, this does give me a lot to work with. And if we consider the effect of negative pressure and the anti-gravity it causes, it makes sense that the energy comes from somewhere.”

“The question is where does the Entropic Dimension get that energy from? It is possible if we throw away Newtonian physics and use Einstein's general theory of relativity, so then we would have perpetual motion. But if you ask me that is just being lazy, Entropic Dimension has to be getting the energy from somewhere. Another dimension? Now I come to the same problem string theory has... wait!!”

“If we take the absurd view like loop quantum gravity and its attempts to provide a united theory of everything, and the fluctuation of a quantum field, or virtual particles, we can connect the pieces.” Scribbling her ideas she had failed to notice that her audience got lost a long time ago.

“Now with the frame in place, if we look at what a black hole is and how it evaporates with hawking radiation, we can speculate that the Entropic Dimension is connected to the singularity of a black hole. If we push a little deeper I would theorize that to be the reason why matter won over anti-matter.” Fully in her element, she started laughing again.

“Because it didn’t! Both matter and antimatter are just two sides and the Entropic Dimension is right between them, this would explain the high entropy in its dimension. If we take two parallel worlds, one made from matter and the other from antimatter, and have both of them leak inside the middle ground between them, that area gains high entropy that it then leaks back!”

She was jumping around at this point, it made the two observers glad to see her this happy, ever since they met her she had been on the edge.

“Oh my god, I am so sorry I got lost in my thoughts again.”

“It is quite alright, I doubt I could follow even if you explain all the details.’’

“Yeah, suffice to say that everything is connected, and now I know where the energy for the manipulation of matter comes from, or at least I think so. How about we start on the magic part tomorrow, I want to spend some time with this theory so I can see if there are any huge kinks or overlaps to iron out.”

“I believe that to be the best course of action as well. I am very glad to see such passion even if I do not understand what it is about. You mentioned before that this was your job before?”

“Yeah, it was. I even went so far as to get a doctorate.”

“Can you elaborate on what exactly that means?”

“Well firstly I am a physicist, it’s a job title like any other. Except instead of working with tools, a physicist studies the world, figuring out how things work and why they work. When the subject first started it went with simple questions and tried answering them, for example, what is lightning?

The thing is that every answer brings with it three other questions. If you were to ask me what lightning is I would say that it is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge. Then you ask me what is an electrostatic discharge. And so we go deeper and deeper until we hit the things I was talking about.”

“A scholar Indeed, but while on the subject I am rather curious at what lightning is in detail.”

Ana gave him a toothy smile as she got an idea. Going through with the stupid idea was later blamed on her excess giddiness.

“How about I show you instead?”

“Well, color me intrigued, if you think you can conjure the wrath of the heavens by all means try.” Words he would later eat.

Ana closed her eyes bringing the might of her mind into focus. Already knowing how to do the step by step manipulation she had learned playing with the campfire, she imagined the combination of the change in temperature and the rapid upward air movement that produced a mixture of small and big ice crystals.

The updraft carrying the small ice crystals upward as they were lighter. At the same time, the considerably larger and denser crystals falling or being suspended in the rising air.

The differences in the movement causing collisions to occur. When the ice crystals collided, the smaller ice crystals became positively charged while the bigger ones were negatively charged. The point was the difference between a positive and a negative charge.

After that, she imagined the so-called anvil, aka the upper part of the thunderstorm spreading out horizontally, and in combination with that, the increase in the movement of air increased the charge buildup.

Following that was the creation of a small but important positive charge near the bottom of the cloud. Lastly, a good mix of warm air with the colder air created a disturbance necessary for the polarization of the atmosphere. In simpler words, lightning!

Opening her eyes the charge buildup was visible between her palms as her hands were shaking, she got what she wanted but was late to realize that she didn’t know a way of controlling it. Panicked she let go of the spell. The lightning was discharged into the ground, luckily nothing getting in its path.

There was a small detail she had forgotten about however, the sudden increase in pressure and temperature from lightning strike also had a nasty side effect. A loud bang knocked her away several meters while also deafening her.

“Can’t have lightning...without thunder...Ouch..” It took Nathaniel a few moments to get himself out of a daze before he rushed to Ana who was sprawling on her back. She wasn’t deaf which was nice, but her ears were still ringing so reassuring Nathaniel that she was fine became a bit harder.

She grabbed Nathaniel’s hand, an evil grin forming as she whispered. “Unlimited power!”

“Yes indeed! That was quite something, you never cease to amaze.” They decided to retire for the evening, giving Ana some time to rest, for as tomorrow her training would begin. Before Ana could complain about the incident the last time she went to sleep, a calm Nathaniel explained that now that they knew what to expect it was easy to counter it.

Around her bed was a circle made from metal, that looked like copper or maybe even brass. “I will teach you how to maintain the circle tomorrow, for tonight I will be the one keeping it active so you just relax and try to get some rest.”

And so she did, the long day combined with her excitement had drained her more than she realized. Or maybe her new teacher cast a spell on her. Either way, sleep found her quickly.

She found herself back in the infinite room where she had met Adrestia for the first time. “Welcome back survivor, you wanted to speak to me?”

“How did you know? I mean I only mentioned it once?” Ana didn’t know to be impressed or scared that she had to keep a close watch on what she speaks if the goddess and others like her could just listen in.

“Only once you used my name, names carry great power but you will learn that from Nathaniel. Now before you ask your questions, know that I may not share information freely as mortals do.”

“Firstly I wanted to thank you for saving my life. I’m not that big on religion but I hope my beliefs don’t insult you. And to ask, why did you save me in the first place?”

That brought a chuckle from the deity. Her laugh was like a thundercloud and a sweet meadow at the same time, quite hard to explain and forget at the same time. “I could see that your soul was just, so I could not leave you to suffer an unjust fate. Your beliefs are your own, as I do not intend to force a change onto you. I do wish I could help you to return home but that path is yours to take if you chose so.”

“Thank you. I’m guessing no answer for my theories then?”

“I am afraid not, such answers are for you to discover. Life would be quite dull with all life’s questions answered, don’t you agree?”

It was Ana’s turn to chuckle. “I do agree, the scientist in me is relishing the challenge. I want you to know if there is anything I can do to repay your kindness I would most certainly be willing to do so.” If she really was a deity she wanted to be squared with her as soon as possible.

“Good to know.” Did she sound a bit menacing there or was that just my imagination? Before she could answer her own question the endless halls dissipated around her as she found herself back to sleep.

Nightmares still haunted her, causing her to wake up several times screaming. Once dawn came she gave up on sleep and went outside with the collection of notes she had written yesterday. Nathaniel had left her a sizable amount of supplies to write on, so she began running some calculations.

After a few hours, she groaned in annoyance, as nothing made sense on paper. She had to make up many numbers to get the results she needed, and just as an equation would start to make sense it collapsed in a dumpster truck fire. She knew before starting that this would take a lifetime of experiments and research to confirm. But in her mind, it made perfect sense, like finding a perfect piece to a puzzle.

Soon her host had woken as well and she was invited for some breakfast, explaining what her ravings from yesterday meant. Nathaniel had a slew of questions that Ana readily provided. The idea of a Big Bang was quite fascinating to the man. It felt good to have some company she could share her beloved subject with.

After breakfast, it was time to study. But Ana had a secret weapon. Besides spending her life in academic pursuit, she was already fluent in three other languages, so picking another one was easy enough. Especially with the help of magic, learning words she was already speaking sped up the process.

But after a few hours of that, they moved onto some physical training per Ana’s request. She felt extremely bad that she was in such good shape with defined muscles, without an ounce of effort put in. They showed her some basic exercises, with running, doing pushup, pullups, situps, and the rest. While she knew how to do those in theory she was lacking the knowledge of a proper way to position her body while doing them.

Her memories from highschool clashed with how easily she did the exercises now, to the point of making them laughable. She clearly remembered not being able to do two push-ups in a row, where now she could chain fifty without getting tired. It felt like connecting a phone with a 99% battery to a charger. Pointless but it felt good to do nonetheless.

Next Borka tried teaching her some self-defense skills. Her idea when the point was first brought up was that she would be wielding a sword or something similar, but it boiled down to correct stances and unarmed combat. What to do in a pinch or whatnot. It was funny to her that the best way to win a fight was not to fight in the first place.

So the lesson boiled down to hitting quickly with surprise and getting the hell out of there. Later lessons would be much broader but she needed to know what to do if she got cornered.

So the day passed with them exchanging topics of interest while training, Nathaniel was fascinated by science while Borka loved the stories Ana told. While she majored in physics her second love was history, especially while she was younger. She avoided anything war-related past the 19th century, only talking about the industrial revolution and the renaissance from a cultural point of view.

That night Nathaniel had explained the importance of magic circles, the point being in a closed loop that prevented magical influence from the outside, or inside if reversed. The quick and easy way to set up a circle was to draw it on the ground and to flood the inside with your own magic. A more permanent solution was to have a ring made from brass, as it prevented any magic from leaking once closed.

It was quite easy to achieve that with some instruction, while Ana felt like a genius, the look on Nathaniel’s face told her that this was the pre-beginner stuff. Still, she felt proud of herself. Thus sleep had taken her, and while the nightmares were slowly releasing their hold on her, she still woke after a few hours.