Teo doesn't fight that. "Okay, sorry. I don't want to be your enemy, but I have to know who you are. Your name ought to be on the list. I have to check on that, the risk of your unknown quantity is too much."

Sahde is able to hear that loud and clear, but no one else reacts to it.

O... kay.

Yeah.

Fine.

He emails Teo from his pocket everything after he's collected his clothes and left the premises with, "That gray was me, that was rude as shit, but if you want to talk we can talk."

What?

Is Teo's reaction when he collects his things. Good thing he checked his messages before calling anyone.

I would like to talk to you immediately.

He gets dressed and waits for a place to meet Sahde.

Sahde can meet wherever, so once they have found a sufficiently secluded corner in a café, he makes it pretty fucking hard for anyone to hear what they're saying and asks, "'Sup."

He manages to keep a serious face for a second before smiling despite himself. "Sahde? Are you serious?"

"Yes, I'm serious. But how am I a security risk, other castes have magic users, too, I'm sure you must have known that."

He will not bring up that even reds do, since... well, that one is an actual secret.

"The other castes... don't have both kinds of magic. You have a lot of both."

"Wait what. How'd you—what—you know about it?"

Teo nods. "Yes, I do. I am sure there are blue magic users that don't. Which... how did you discover magic?"

He shrugs, but he looks a bit uncomfortable. "It just... clicked one day."

Teo nods. "That seems to be the most common way for not-blues to figure out. Do you know that harmony magic is caused by being an exemplar Amentan and that dissonance is by the opposite?"

"Harmony magic is created by acting in accordance with one of the principles, and dissonance magic is created by acting against one of the principles." Time for him to surprise Teo, then. "Any of the principles," he adds, innocently. "I am an exemplary grey... but not a very exemplary orange."

"Maybe. But the blue's concern is how some counter-principles can be dangerous. And dissonance magic is itself seems to be more dangerous than harmonic."

"More dangerous? I don't see how." He grabs a coin from his pocket—because of course Sahde carries a coin with him. "Two sides of the same coin," he says, flipping the coin in his hand to show a coin with two crowns, then one crown and one queen, then two queens.

Snort. "Of course you would walk around with a coin in this day and age. You are not incorrect in thinking that dissonant magic isn't that dangerous. But... do you know all the principles that cause dissonance?"

He starts counting fingers. "Idleness, selfishness, folly, unoriginality, carelessness, neglect, mediocrity, and," ominous pause, "pollution."

Teo nods along. "Blues really don't want to incentivize this traits being sources of magical power. It's basically the argument that..." he waves his hands to the other patrons, "makes me understand that going public would be dangerous. More than half are very actively dangerous to have around."

"Not false."

"Elaborate?"

"Magic isn't public," he says. "So why am I a security risk for being loaded up on dissonance magic?"

"Because you - or rather, from my perspective at the time - a gray who I knew nothing about was loaded with magic that can be fueled by being extremely careless or outright evil with it. Magical grays are not as organized as blues, but I thought I knew most who are in this city. Being an unknown quantity I needed to verify what you are up to."

"Hmm. Very—conscientious of you," he says, grinning slightly. "I thought—I don't think I had ever met anyone who knew about dissonance magic."

"Like, I said. Blue secret. I think it's just natural for people to not tend towards being very dissonant? Or only being dissonant in a way that is not appealing." Shrug. "Or secret magical assassins take care of the problem." Pause. "That was mostly a joke."

"Mostly???"

"Dissonance magic is kept a secret even among blues. Makes it hard to create an anti-dissonance magic task force."