Laia brought Eloi along to run errands and lend her consequence and because he really wanted to have somewhere else he needed to be rather than going home after the play had to close with Laia's departure, but he also means that she can set up little two-person performances on the front steps of Shelyn's church. Convenient for that popular new format, which is basically written like a script.

They're not very orthodox, some of the pamphlets, but Laia's very good at puffing herself up into a ridiculous pomposity and waggling her eyebrows when delivering lines meant to be laughed at. Besides, literate people get to be exposed to all this nonsense and so should the slower folks who couldn't hack it in school, anything she can countenance paying for in the first place to read from.

"What is a citizen?" chirps Eloi, and Laia draws herself up to her full height and declaims.

(Donations to the church can go in that basket over there.)