"Oh, that last one's easy," she says merrily. "I can make plants move but I can't make them do it autonomously, I can make seeds sprout quickly but you're going to have to define tall, I don't know what a disease is, and I've never met someone with a missing limb to try re-growing it."

"I might be a bit jealous about your mother's kingdom right now."

"Pff, Mama's not Queen."

"The lands which she is the Lady of," Stephen amends.

"You didn't answer my question, anyway, what is a disease?"

Stephen thinks about it. He never had to describe diseases before.

"It's a kind of problem or defect in the way the body works," he explains solemn "often progressive and contangious. They can permanently harm or even kill."

"...Mortals are more mortal than I had realized."

Stephen considers the wisdom of talking about mortality and decides to divert the topic.

"You've met mortals? Why?"

"I haven't met any, but I've heard about them."

"They live far away?"

"...They don't live in Fairyland."

"Well, no wonder you don't know anything about them."

"I know some things! I know you grow up fast and you die and you have a lot of different countries instead of just one, and you have round ears, and you never have wings and you're only rarely shorter than four feet as adults."

"Forgive me for the wrong assumption. Also, wings?"

"Some of us have wings. Like insects, mostly."

"My eldest can fly, but without wings. Are wings common among your people?"

"Yeah. Not as much among the nobility, but they're pretty common."

"Interesting? Is there a magical reason or... it's just an inherited physical trait?"

"Among fairies, you can't really separate the two!"

"Your world must be endlessly fascinating."

"Both more and less so in the Deep South."

"Fair. What is the Deep South like? In relation to the rest of Fairyland?"

"We live in domed habitats. It's really cold outside."

"Oh my spirits, that is certainly a way to keep oneself warm. How big are the domed habitats?"

"They vary. Miles across, most of them."