"If you ever go to an Elf city you will know not to touch anyone's hair and why they will all wince at you slightly."

"Yep. Suppose I could grow it out, but braiding it looks tedious, so that might not be much of an improvement."

"Your choice between naked and mutilated."

"I tend to prefer the first one, but admittedly not for image reasons."

"Well, you can also just explain that humans are different, or rely on everyone being too polite to ask what horrible thing happened to you."

"Maybe I'll wear a hat."

Giggle.

Aww, a giggle! He grins at her.

"It will have to be a pretty hat."

"I'm hardly about to wear an ugly hat."

"Yes, you have very Elf-friendly taste in aesthetics."

"I like making pretty things!"

"Do you ever do music?"

"Not really."

"Well, even a few thousand years isn't long enough to get around to everything."

"Yeah. Maybe someday."

"You have forever!"

"It's pretty nice!"

"Yes. I'm hoping the Valar can do something about mortality without messing up your magic system. Maybe something that doesn't affect people until after they're sixteen."

"Yeah, that sounds like a promising angle. And I'll have to figure out where to put everybody, but I'm sure I'll think of something."

"In space! On other planets! You can just make air and water! I suppose you might have a scaling problem if you tried to do it all personally."

"My empire is mine, I want it to stay within reach."

"Portals don't do the trick?"

"Not as well as I'd like. I can get to anywhere else on this planet as fast as I can get to anywhere in Skygarden, but Skygarden is still closer, it - matters to how I feel about it."

"Permanent portal-doors?"