"Why?" asks Finnah. She is still sitting on Mial.

"They've escalated to unforgivable sniping. Well, 'unforgivable' might be a little strong. Very nasty sniping, anyway. Which they allow each other by virtue of being alts, but any outsider stepping into that crossfire disturbs the balance and makes it all hurt again."

Finnah decides to stop being on Mial. She flies away and shifts midair, feet on the ground. "Weird," she says.

"I was right," he adds, "Mial is pushing harder than the other two."

"And they're ganging up on him," says Finnah.

"Yeah. That part might stabilize out, though. Even the other thing might, given enough time. You may have noticed that when a Miles is pushed he tends to push back."

"Nooooo, really?" Finnah flops into a chair.

Mark giggles.

Meanwhile, Ivan and Aurin are telling each other about their respective current girlfriends.

Mark idly eavesdrops.

Vivienne's virtues have already been spoken; Siya, apparently, likes to fly, and plays the huan (an instrument) and amisro (a sport), the latter of which comes with a uniform that Aurin appreciates very much. She doesn't like kids but does like drakes and is currently between pet ones after her prior one succumbed to old age; Aurin is considering getting her one for Hearthnight. It is her favorite holiday and she's planning to be in a parade for it.

Well, that's adorable.

"Is this topic of conversation really that interesting to you?" Ivan wonders in Mark's direction.

"Why wouldn't it be?"

"You've never met Vivienne or Siya?" suggests Aurin.

"Should that matter?"

"I mean, I suppose if you're coming back to Barrayar you might meet Vivienne eventually but I can't imagine that this would be particularly useful prep work," says Ivan. "Is this just 'Ivans are fascinating, even when they're going on about total strangers to make point by point comparisons'?"

"Yes."

Mark gives a little shudder. "Children. No thank you. Not even a child Ivan. Especially not a child Ivan."

"He was adorable, and very well behaved if I do say so myself," says Ivan. "His cousins were yelling and he was perfectly content to play whirligig. Children on Easy Mode."

"I fear the effect of me on children, not the effect of children on me."

"Why?" asks Aurin.

"I'm not very good at talking to people without inadvertently horrifying them. I don't care to test myself on people who are likely to be harder to understand and easier to upset."

"What about a little Miles, since you're the expert on Mileses?" wonders Ivan. "If he'd been here alone."