Tony flapped his hands, starting to wonder if they should be writing dictionaries for each other because this wasn't working like whatever was translating for them how every other alien spoke; they were using the same language, just using it differently, and Tony kept expecting to treat Lark like a contemporary. That wasn't working for him. "Medieval is what we call this period of time before we figured out democracy, and condoms," he summarized. "A lot more religious. More people spent more time thinking about magic. Not that all of the magic went away, it just doesn't impact most people's day to day lives, and definitely not in a significant enough way to form social structures around. It's more like, a wizard might live in your neighbourhood, and he probably keeps to himself and doesn't do anything useful, just raises eels in the sewers or something. It would definitely be weird to knock on their door for...research. That sounds more like a college."