"So where is Cog now?" asked Gizogin. "I've been meaning to ask him about one of the books he left with me."
"I sent him home," replied Lana. "He's not of this world, and his presence here was unbalancing things. Actually, that brings me to my reason for coming to find you."
"Hang on, what do you mean, 'sent him home'? You sent him to another world? How does that work?"
"Oh, come on. It's magic. It's really not complicated, you know." Lana peered at Gizogin curiously. "You... you can't use magic, can you?"
"Of course not!" he replied. "You mean to tell me you can?"
That got a laugh out of Lana. "Well of course I can use magic! I told you, it's not complicated."
Annoyed, Gizogin said, "Anyway, what did you need my help with?"
Lana stopped laughing, and was suddenly serious. "Right. Business. As you know, we don't really belong here. Our very presence is putting a bit of strain on things."
"What sort of things?" asked Gizogin.
"Oh, you know, the fabric of the multiverse, the space-time continuum, those sorts of things," she replied, waving her hand in a non-committal manner. "Now, this ordinarily wouldn't be a problem; we're pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things." She put up a finger, to forestall the question on Gizogin's lips. "Cog was a different case. His story is tangled up in all kinds of world-changing events, and his world could be seriously harmed by his absence. There's something else, though. Something big is stirring up a lot of trouble, and I want to find out what it is."
"Is this one of those if-we-don't-stop-it-the-universe-is-at-risk things?"
"Oh, nothing so big as that. Mostly, I'm just curious." Lana laid her head back on the grass and looked up at the storm clouds, still lightly drizzling. "Anyway, I was hoping you could give me a hand trying to puzzle this out. Judging by that big ship that just crashed within your walls, I'd say you're close to the center of it all."
"Well, I'm not sure how much help I can be. All this magic and multiverse stuff is a bit out of my range. I mean, feel free to stay here as long as you need, if you think it'll help," he added hurriedly. "Sorry I can't really offer you the luxury suite, but we just had a pretty big earthquake, and we're still dealing with the fallout."
"Don't worry, I'm not in any hurry to leave. And I'm used to camping out, so that's not a problem."