"It's sort of a..." she begins, before pausing. Cassandra hadn't reacted very well to her describing it as a "spirit animal," and while Kain might not be native to Thedas, she doesn't want to use a misnomer like that again. "Simply put, it's a sort of protective spell that takes the shape of a guardian, an animal dependent upon an individual's personality. It's a very difficult spell - not everyone can conjure them and I'd only learned after exhaustive practice - so I don't know that it can be produced here, given how much difficulty I've been having with my magic here."

Though Hermione nods in response, she still replies, "It's not so incredible, really. Every city in every country in every continent is different, so it's safe to say that different worlds would evolve in a variety of ways. Even so, the fact that something as seemingly primal as magical energy can be so different... that's like finding out that something as basic as water varies from one world to another."

It's like facing Voldemort all over again. Doing that a second time doesn't exactly make the prospect any easier. "Then again, some people here don't even truly believe that Corypheus is behind all this. I hear that's at least one reason for all of these extravagant bells and whistles."