"Interfertility would really solve a lot of problems. People'd go for it, for the milder springs alone, and then they'd have human relatives to worry about and protect and so on."

"Is anyone not apprised of wizards looking into it?"

"Yeah, there are geneticists, but I don't think they're optimistic it can be done at all and they worry if it can the children would be infertile."

"Minor wasn't clear on why we don't just have lots of polar hypovernal kids."

Sigh. "I wasn't sure I believed them at first that they were barely at replacement. But my niece went to live with them and observe and she said they have the slaves watching the kids almost all the time, they don't co-sleep with them unless they're too poor to afford a crib, they delay because they're not ready without the slightest impulse to become ready, they delay right up until the end of their fertile window, that way... Hala brought a fairytale of theirs to my attention, Kan, do you have it?"

He has a whole book. "This is the only bit of the whole research that is potentially publishable, and it's not decisive on its own, just suggestive. 'There was a king who had two healthy children', it'll say, like that's all a king would want, or 'and then they ran off together and married and had a daughter who was as beautiful as the sun and lived happily ever after', or 'there was a woman who couldn't bear children, and was sad, and bargained with a fairy for one, and tricked the fairy so she didn't have to pay its price, and doted forever upon her healthy son'..."

"Is it suggestive enough to buy you research time? Find the most irreligious, pro-Amenta population you can, make sure they have birth control..."

"Less genderist, I think that's as important as irreligious...if we see results fast enough, maybe."

"If they hit age twenty-two in local years, with no controls, and are putting off having children and surveys show that's fine with them I think people will notice."

"And they might. Wizards wait into their thirties. ...I can probably find somewhere where things are going well enough for it to make sense to push for that. Universal birth control and say that humans who aren't married with families yet can enroll in more education or travel or something..."

"Or just pay them not to have kids."

"Or that! We're trying to avoid the impression we don't want them to have kids, makes people nervous, but there are probably places where that's less of a concern."

"Pay them to complete various educational milestones without kids to distract them?"

"Might work. ...if we did figure out hybrids and humans didn't have population controls we'd have to be thoughtful about doing controls for hybrids."

"For one thing it would complicate caste enormously. Perhaps it is time to give it up as a bad job."

Snort. "I think if we get enough planets eventually one will be casteless and then everyone can see how it does."

Sigh.

"It's really hard to do from the current arrangement. Less so for places on the Voan system, I guess, but I'm not going to be able to get Anitam a Voan system nor is it obvious I should."

"I know I'm not the only grey with a problem like mine but I personally would have been adequately served by letting mixed caste kids pick."

"We're doing a trial with greys in particular. I think it's going reasonably well though I'm behind on news from home."

"It's going great but it was in the wrong city."

"I'm sorry. I do know what it's like."

"It really was up in the air for a very long time whether any of them were going to get away with it."

"I didn't even try to get away with anything and it still didn't work."