"There really isn't an adequate vocabulary for time and space travel, is there?" She laughs.

"And about the Abyss, well, I suppose magic works differently cross-universe—well, I'm not entirely sure how your kind of magic works, but for us... at one time, it's told, magic was much more common and everyone had the potential to learn it."

She looks up, thoughtfully. "I don't know if it's exactly like the myths say, but I can sort of believe that at some point some people decided that they wanted more power but didn't want anyone else to have it, and so did something to weaken the connection humanity had with magic and created the Abyss in its place. They couldn't break it completely, I guess, since mages still Awaken to this day, but it's a war that mages still fight today, to reinstate it."