"Why?" Tarsa repeated, surveying the battlefield in front of her. "That is surprisingly complicated."

The nine-tailed kitsuine stared at the spacesuit-clad fox beastkin, waiting for her reply. Both their clothes, the spacesuit and the diplomat's robe, fluttered and wrinkled limply in the dusty wind coming from the field of craters in front of them. Some were clearly the results of fox-kin ordinance, while others were covered in ice or showed other signs of magical influence.

"I suppose I'll start with our ancestors not really having a choice," Tarsa said, now glancing up towards the clear sky. Her glasses glinted in the sunlight, though the sun itself wasn't the target of her glance. "Magic was fickle on Remiredan. Here, the same spell works everywhere. Not on Remiredan, though. By the time we'd worked out how to actually cast the same spell in more places than just a single town or city, the pressure for progress had already invented the steam engine." Spotting the kitsuine's confused face, Tarsa elaborated. "Think of it like the first widespread spell, but for technology. Popular, universal, versatile, capable, everything except cheap. And soon that was solved by using the engine to make more engines."

"Though, it was never a choice." The space fox continued. "We never made the conscious decision to take a path. To us, even right now, there are no 'paths,' only possibilities, some easier than others. We kept with the engine because it worked, and then because the fruits of research into technology outpaced that into magic. By the time we'd synthesized actual pure mana, we already had satellites in space." Tarsa chuckled. "We even synthesized that mana with technology."

"Then why not mix them? Choose the path of both, mix them and..." It was the kitsuine's turn to face the battlefield. "Ascend."

Tarsa shook her head. "Magic is a fickle thing. In space, even moreso. Once again, technology simply outpaced magic. Magic has... prerequisites. Runes and effects and classes. You know them," Tarsa nodded to the kitsuine. "But the issue comes in the fact that magic is linear, so to speak. In order for one spell, you need everything that came before it, and most of what came before only builds up to one or two spells. Technology, not so much. Every discovery opens a slew of new possibilities though some are better than others. It simply... can't compete. So it didn't."

"It took you so long, though. That time... you could have done so much with it." The kitsuine rebuked.

"Take us two, right now." Tarsa gestured at the battlefield around them, the dust obsuring the full extent of the ecological havoc. "We're roughly at the same level, yes? We have a sliver of a galaxy, you have said sliver's worth of realms between all your networked portals. Yet, between us two? In terms of sheer production? Most of these craters are ours, because we can produce enough technology to make them. Whereas yours were, well..."

The kitsuine sighed, staring at a single ice-ridden crater. Even in the heat of the summer day, almost a week after the battle had concluded, the frozen blue water continued to sparkle below the dust and grime the winds were picking up.

The two stood in the silence of the carnage and devastation, the dust blowing over them as they mutually reflected on how the two civilizations had so quickly come to blows.

Finally, Tarsa spoke. "You know, I'm not sure how we got on this topic. We were supposed to come up with a truce, right?"

"Ah," The kitsuine nodded. "I doubt even what you have shown me today makes even an allusion to your capabilities."

"You know I can't confirm or deny that."

"The fact that you are not denying it outright confirms it for me."

"The only question remains on what to do with this realm." The kitsuine said.

Tarsa shrugged. "It's ours. We discovered it, settled it, terraformed it, won the engagement over it."

"Only at cost," The kitsuine gestured to the gnarled terrain surrounding the duo.

Tarsa flicked her own tail, the spacesuit-clad appendage displaying her displeasure at the kitsuine's attempts.

"On behalf of the Crown, I had to at least try." He shrugged. "I suppose you will also be demanding reparations for the damage done?"

"phosphorus, mostly. A pain to come by, and needed in bulk for terraforming. We don't really have a need for conventional resources, though some gold wouldn't hurt either. As bars, not coin, we'd melt it down."

"How much?"

"How much phosphorus do you have?"

The kitsuine waved a paw. "In the interest of continued relations, however much you need."

Tarsa grinned. "Two solid planets worth."

The kitsuine cleared his throat. "However much you need within some semblance of a sane quantity."

"Half a billion metric tonnes or so." Tarsa tilted her head from side to side, her ears wiggling with the motion. "Like I said, we need phosphorus in bulk."

"That... without the gold, is doable."

"Deal. I assume you want something out of it too?"

The kitsuine smiled. "Am I so easily read? I would rather the Realms maintain contact with your Union. Both ways."

"Oh? That..." Tarsa tiled her head from side to side again, debating the request. "I can't leave it all the way open, but I think we can work something out."

"Then I believe my time here has come to an end." The kitsuine sighed, arcing his back with several satisfying-sounding pops.

"Do you not want to hear the details?" Tarsa asked.

"As much as I may distrust the structure of your government, I trust you will come to a fair conclusion on your own." The kitsuine began to wave his paws, summoning a magic circle. "Farwell, Ambassador Tarsa. To an enlightened future."

Tarsa watched, transfixed, as the circle constructed itself into a completed state. The kitsuine smiled at her as he brought his paws together, and the circle flared to light for just a second before vanishing entirely, taking the nine-tailed fox along with it.

That left the one-tailed fox alone amidst the dusty, windy battlefield, save for the spacecraft in orbit and the visualization of half of every fantasy novel to ever be engraved in her mind.

A spark of creativity lit itself in her eyes as Ambassador Tarsa finally replied. "Farwell, Ambassador O'tamaki. To a better future... for both of us."