"You call what you do Magic?" Danial Jackson asked, he and Teal'c had been informed of their visitors and their request and Daniel's curiosity was going through the roof. Which was a lot of curiosity considering they were 27 floors underground.
"I don't see any reason to change the words that have been used for thousands of years just because some people think progress means renaming everything. The words have worked for us for this long, why try to fix something that isn't broken? Plenty of things that already are broken that can be fixed." Xander shrugged. "We study our Magic and make new discoveries just like scientists study science. New discoveries sometime warrant new words, but that doesn't warrant changing the previous words, not to most of us. It's our language, it grows and changes, but respects what came before. We found a way to communicate with your science minded Major Carter by likening our words to hers. Doesn't mean we're going to change all our words now, just run them through a translator."
"Nowadays most people tend to think of Magic as primitive, uneducated people trying to explain the world without doing anything to study it, hence explaining to them they're wrong to believe the way they are. Then we find out you have been studying the world and started doing it thousands of years before we did and we realize how incredibly arrogant we were to make any kind of assumption or to try to force those assumptions on others."
"Like when you met the Nox? Colonel O'Neill mentioned them and how what they do might be Magic."
"Yeah, we thought they were these primitive people needing protection and it turns out they're incredibly advanced and helped us just because they're nice people. We lost an incredible opportunity because of our preconceptions." Daniel said sadly. "And our second encounter with them went even worse, we rescued a group of very technologically advanced humans from their dying world and some political idiots in our government tried to hold them in intellectual slavery and force them to reveal their technological secrets. They managed to contact the Nox and ask for help and they granted it. They were even more disappointed in us as a people."
"Just as a word of warning, if any one of those idiots try that with us they'll understand first hand how words that came out of my mouth wiped out potentially tens of thousands of our enemy in less then a minute." Xander flicked his glance toward Dr. Jackson and than back to the tablet on the shelf in front of him that he'd been studying while visiting his office and answering his questions. "Play fair with us and we'll play fair with you. Cross us and be grateful for a fast death. Hurt the people under our protection and it won't be a fast death."
"My wife is a prisoner of the Goa'uld." Daniel said softly, steal in his voice. "I argue for peace whenever possible, but given a chance I will kill the things keeping her from me and her family. Given a chance, she'd find a way to either escape or die taking them with her. She started a rebellion on her home world, Abydos, when they took me prisoner."
Xander grinned. "You've got to admire that kind of strength and courage, all the while praying you're never stupid enough to piss them off yourself. Cordy promised me that if I go evil she'll kick my ass. Especially considering that she could bench press a Volvo and that's just what she could do to me physically, verbally she earned her self proclaimed title of Bitch Queen by verbally shredding anyone that didn't meet her standards. She's since earned the official title of Valkyrie."
"Norse equilviant of an Amazon?"
"Pretty much."
"Yeah, I wouldn't risk it either." Daniel agreed. "How many people in your group practice Magic?"
"Myself and Amy, with Ms. Calendar teaching us. Ms. Calendar is a technopagan, one of those innovating the joining of Magic and technology. Giles knows some Magic, but usually tries to avoid doing any. He got in deep when he was a little older then we are now in the dark side of Magic and got burned, badly."
"Amy was the one who prayed to Hecate when we stumbled into your basement."
"She wasn't praying, she was asking Hecate if she could borrow some power and Hecate said yes."
"You mean the goddess Hecate is real?!" Daniel exclaimed.
"I mean, to translate it into a language you can understand, we long ago identified powerful beings that live in the dimensions we harvest energy from. At one time we worshipped them as gods and some people still do. The ones we call celestial gods enacted an agreement called the Accords, where they do not interfere in the lives of lessor beings unless those beings invite them to and only to the extent which is asked for. Worship isn't required but isn't refused either. Hecate is one such being, as is Janus. I don't worship Janus, but I do respect him and the areas he will extend his help in when asked."
"Wow." For once in his life Daniel had no words to express what he was thinking and feeling as he thought about the ramifications of that statement.
"Remember when we first met and you told us about the Goa'uld pretending to be our gods? I meant it when I said, I doubt that will go over well with our gods. If and when the Goa'ulds pretending to be them die, I imagine our gods will express just how much they feel in regards to it. Especially since the Goa'uld are enslaving and killing people in the names of the gods. That kind of thing tends be really...annoying, don't you think?"