"I think that's wise. Thank you very much for your time. I'll send introductions along over the next couple of days - when you submit people for teleportation you can say that I think that should get expedited review -"

"Thank you."

"Of course." He leaves.

The House prepares to colonize a planet.

"Was that a good idea?" Mareth asks him later. She's moved on to little clay sculptures; she embellishes them with pins from her hair.

"Having the prince over? I think it helped some."

"Oh good. They're really not horrible."

"I think they're not used to having to explain that so much."

"...I think most places have lots of things wrong with them but, uh, think those things are wrong. They're - compromises, they're not the whole point. So when people say 'no, not that, we'll give you whatever you want to stop doing that', they don't feel like they're being coerced with huge bribes into destroying something they care about, they feel like people are giving them lots of stuff to fix things with."

"The thing where they figured out how to clean reds is good."

"I can't actually figure out which things you think are bad, except for arresting people who kill reds."

"It's - it feels degrading to construe reds as being on the same plane as clean people in importance."

"Ah."

"It doesn't feel like you're elevating them, that's - emotionally impossible, it just feels like a threat."

" - if we think of you like reds then why would our promises to you mean anything, your promises to reds certainly don't..."

"...well, we mostly leave reds alone if they do what we want."

"That makes sense. It's horrible but it makes sense."

Shrug.

"I don't know how to change it."

"Me either."