"So the Darkness is less a single being with numerous minions and allies as it is a hivemind?" Hermione murmurs. The rest of that explanation, about prisoners being processed, makes her wrinkle her nose with absolutely no subtlety, but she still absently breathes out, "It's efficient, if nothing else." Macabre and disgusting, but at least it doesn't sound wasteful. She's clearly seen too much in her life if she's thinking of things along those lines.

"So... is the story of the Traveler and the Darkness a sort of religious allegory?" That would certainly impact whether or not Hermione is particularly willing to believe it as legitimate history, since anything with any sort of spiritual attachment tends to have a fair amount of fabrication behind it. She doesn't like thinking of things that way, but given everything she's seen both in her world an this one, it seems like a logical conclusion to draw.

What's illogical, however, is Mac's explanation for his appearance. "I don't... understand. Are you saying that going through the Fade resulted in you merging with your helmet? Or that the Fade tried to make you look more like one of the Thedosian races? That doesn't make any sense."

Looking up at his horns and fighting the almost painfully obvious temptation to reach out and touch them, she bites on her lip for a moment before her gaze flits over the rest of his appearance, trying to imagine what he normally looks like. "And you're also saying that wizards and witches - what my world knows of as wizards and witches - ended up evolving to look like... you?" Realizing how that sounds, she shakes her head and corrects, "Sorry, that came out badly. There's nothing wrong with how you look, of course, it's just... I've seen magic have an effect on a person's appearance, but never in a positive way before."