"Then it'd be different. Noldor parents have Noldor children, Vanyar parents have Vanyar children."

"Mutant parents have mutant children, and sometimes human parents have mutant children, and in enough generations probably everyone is going to be us instead of them."

"And what's the difference?"

"Well--lots of differences, on the outside, some of us have different skin colors or hair colors and some of us have wings and some of us have powers--I'm a telepath like Papa, and Emily does magnetism like Daddy, and Scotty's indestructible and has laser eyes, and we all have the X-Gene."

"...genes wouldn't do that. Also, genes wouldn't rise in prevalence in a population like that."

"Well, they do," she points out reasonably.

"The translation magic is probably not working, we must use the same word for different things."

"What do you think it means?"

"Animals have a language inside every part of them that describes what they are and their role in the song. Most of the bits tell what kind of animal it is, but some of them describe things about the animal - hair color, eye color, length, pelt thickness, things like that. When animals have children together, they get half their mother's bits and half their father's bits, and then the new one is built from that, which is why animals look like their parents."

"That is totally what I mean by genes."

"The way genes work in my world, they are reshuffled when animals have children, they don't take over. So no gene will eventually be present in the whole population."

"That's...supposed to be how it works...but mutant numbers are rising. I...think the X-Gene's recessive, is part of it..."

"That shouldn't have anything to do with it - hey, Bar, can we have some paper?"

Paper appears. It is not free, but your Security job does come with pay and I can dock that if you prefer not to run up a tab.

"Yeah, okay. Unless you were going to pay me in mithril I don't think I need a salary. Edie, come sit up here? Let's look at a recessive gene and how it'd behave in a population if there wasn't any magic at work."

"I mostly meant for why mutant couples have mutant children and human couples also have mutant children. Like how two brown-haired parents can have a blonde kid but if you see a black-haired kid with blonde parents you know they're adopted." But she climbs up onto a bar stool anyway.

"Yeah," he says, "that explains that part, but it doesn't explain the gene increasing in frequency in the population, and it predicts that most children of Men and mutants will be Men - are they?'

"...No."

He draws it out. "They should be, see?"

She looks at it. She nods. "I bet Papa knows. He's a brilliant geneticist."

"Bet he does. Anyway, mutants sound like they can do more than Men so I guess it's good that eventually there'll be more of you."

"Yes," she says firmly. "We don't all live forever but some of us do. Papa says he thinks fuck-off guy does."

"fuck-off guy? And I can teach you Odette's magic, then you'll all live forever."

"When Papa and Daddy were recruiting they walked up to him and he told them to fuck off without even hearing them talk and they left. And--yes, absolutely, that would be the best thing ever!" She leans over on her stool and throws her arms around him.

He hugs her back. "So in Odette's world teaching magic to people who are younger than fourteen is very bad. Magic can change your brain. I think it's worth it to stop everyone in your world dying, but I am an irresponsible person who has problems with authority and you might want to get your Papa and Daddy's opinions. Or get a grownup here."