"We need to learn these things. You don't. I would not give one-year-old me those books."

"I will be two later, and then three, that's how numbers work."

"And you can read about these things then."

"If you really don't want me to I don't have to but I don't want to be surprised by things being awful suddenly."

"I can't imagine what it would help to know all of the awful things there are to know before you've even learned much - nicer - stuff but I don't know how upsetting you find it to be surprised about there being bad things happening halfway around the world."

"I did not like it this last time at all. But maybe there are not any more things as big as an entire other caste existing and littler surprises would be okay."

"You could read the table of contents, and see if any of the surprises in it seem that big."

"That is a good idea." She reads the table of contents.

It contains mentions of many bad things, some familiar and some unfamiliar, but no new castes.

"What is perfidy?"

"Negotiating a ceasefire or truce dishonestly and betraying it. It's very bad because then people are more reluctant to negotiate truces and wars can't end."

"What is the Unaligned Orange League?"

"They do medicine in war zones. Same thing - if we shoot at them then no medicine in war zones and lots of unnecessary dying."

"...aren't people in war zones trying to kill each other though?"

"Usually you are trying to achieve a strategic objective and killing people who get in the way of that. Killing people just to kill people is frowned on. Killing them slowly and horribly is not allowed, and medical care for the wounded helps with that."

"Oh. Okay."

She decides there are no urgent secrets in this book and reads the table of contents of the next.

It, too, contains lots of things that happen in wars.

She proceeds through the stack.

The executions one contains discussion of police corruption, organized crime, and judges accepting bribes. The executing-children one talks a lot about some tiny country that executes peoples' families for serious crimes and about Tapa, which kills babies born without a credit.

She reads two paragraphs each of several chapters in the executions book and has a couple questions about the executing people's families thing and then she is done.

Her parents look very glad of this.

"Thanks," she says.

"Of course. Good night."

"Good night."

And she goes to sleep.

And they take the books back.

"She's developmentally older than one, you know."