"Could you find the star on a map?"

"Sorry, neither of us was especially into astronomy."

"Oh well. I'd like to introduce you to the council member I know best, who speaks a little Oahkar; do you have more questions for me before then?"

"It might also be useful to mention that we don't have castes."

"- do you happen to know if you count as clean by local standards -"

"The family whose home we appeared in thought of that too. All the stuff you have reds for we can do at a distance, by magic. It was a little unsettling to realize there was a whole caste of people who have to deal with that kind of thing."

"Well, we'd have robots by now but every time someone suggests it reds start murdering anyone who looks like they might be a roboticist."

"The internet rather gave us the impression that that was because they expected to be murdered once extraneous. Not that that justifies it, but it does make us cautious about the possibility of magically making them extraneous."

"People occasionally suggest pensioning them off, doesn't seem to calm them down any."

"In their situation I'm not sure I'd believe the people in question. And I imagine if you pensioned them off you wouldn't let them have children."

"...well, the red children wouldn't have anything to do with themselves."

"I'm sure. What would be really convenient would be if we could clean them somehow--I understand that's generally considered to be impossible, but that's without magic. It's too soon to tell, anyway, we don't know much of anything about how hereditary pollution works."

"Tapa doesn't have much in the way of a theologian population. Orvara's the international standard for that."

"Maybe we'll go there at some point, then."

Nod.

On to the council member, then. 

The council member would be delighted to find some areas of Tapai farmland that could be kicked into high gear so that the could end the rationing.

Would it then still be necessary to be at war with Voa?

"That may depend on how ongoing an assist you're willing to be. At normal yield we don't have the farmland to self-support and the entire global food economy has been thrown into a shambles over Voa's behavior, and we just have no way to credibly inform the populace that they'll be more responsible in the future. They haven't even arrested the perpetrator."

"We intend to speak to them as well, but certainly noted." 

"If it means ending a war, I'm willing to commit to ongoing food production assistance."

"That will get us as far as a long ceasefire. But if you'll excuse me for saying so - suddenly appearing aliens may not have much more credibility than Voa does."

"...That makes sense."

He smiles apologetically.

"Well, what matters isn't whether it's called a ceasefire or an end to the war, what matters is that people not die."