“So we finished up with thirteen gods that represented the concentrated subconscious expectations of the various archetypes. We had the Gods of Virtue, Vice, Art, Mercy, Peace, Logic, and so on. Some have since died or have otherwise gone missing. My grandfather was known for his martial arts and served in the army for a period before the exile, and the collective subconscious decided he was the God of War. Like his son, my Uncle Xen, he can be summoned by someone who believes. These days we have several others that are termed baby Gods, like Uncle Xen, who’s the God of Spies. Teleportation was developed from analyzing what happened when my grandfather was summoned.”

The young man, Roland, looked at her in surprise.

“Really? I didn’t realize that. I knew it wasn’t something dimensional because I saw Ra’d do it, but I didn’t know that it originated on Comet Fall.”

“Comet Fall?” Andrew asked.

Destiny nodded. “That is what my home world is called these days because it is regularly subject to strikes from comets. We started out with a relatively advanced society, electric cars, and so forth straight after the exile, but then we took a comet hit around four hundred years after the exile, and the population was decimated. I was told that only a hundred thousand people survived. These days, I understand we’re over five hundred million and climbing. Because our founding population had a high instance of genetic engineering, plus some of the thirteen gods were around after the comet, the survivors relied on magic for many things that technology does on other worlds.”

“When we were rudely brought back into the multi-verse by the Empire of the One and the Earth attempting to conquer us practically simultaneously, we were still using horses and carts, and our most modern industry was a few steam engines. We still mostly use horses and carts, not having found any reason to change. Corridors enable transportation from one side of the planet to the other instantaneously.”

“Corridors?” Andrew was definitely at the boggled stage now.

“Yes. They’re made from bubbles. When you look at the blue, can you see those semitransparent bubble things?” Andrew nodded. “Bubbles have a natural time dilation of thirty thousand to one. If you’re careful, you can catch one and poke a hole in it without it bursting. You can then store almost anything there as they are not part of this universe. People normally attach them to something,”

At this point, Roland held up what looked like a strip of aluminum, which he pulled apart, revealing a bronzy-colored surface between the two strips of metal that expanded as he pulled them apart. Destiny nodded at them as he closed them back up.

“That is a sort of standard design for handles, although they can be anything. Anyway, another use is if you attach one to a wall, for argument’s sake, and stretch it to wherever you want the other end. Around the corner, cross to the other side of the city, or halfway around the planet. Then you put a hole in it and attach it there, stretch a few bits out, and attach them, and then you have a doorway at the other end. Comet Fall is covered in them. Several other worlds are now becoming increasingly covered in them as well.”