"Thank you! - how does the Sphere thing work, does it just - allow transit straightforwardly -"

"Mm? You can, like... make a portal to your Sphere from anywhere you are that's not your Sphere, and once the portal's there you can open and close it from either side if you're near it. Oh, but if you try to make a portal to your Sphere from somebody else's they have to let you, and then either of you can close it anytime but if one of you tries to open it again the other one has to let 'em."

"But it's still probably more efficient to evacuate people that way than by painting them all."

"Oh, yeah, probably. ...though I don't know what happens if you put a portal somewhere and then the place you put the portal disappears."

"Are portals permanent or could I just un-put them as disappearance encroached?"

"You can open and close them once they're made but I've never heard of somebody unmaking one."

"Yeesh. Well. I can put one in the last place likely to go and hope."

"Yeah. And it might be fine. Although not if you ever open that portal again after, I guess."

"Are there any costs to having a disused portal, does it take up space or anything?"

"Nah, when the portal's closed it's basically like it's not there at all except you can tell that it is."

"Cool."

"Spheres are nice!"

"Sounds like it! What if a lot of portals are close together and open?"

"I don't actually remember. I think you can't open a portal if it's, like, right through another one?"

"But all lined up like book pages?"

He attempts to picture the results of this. He fails. He shrugs.

"Maybe I'd better go ask people from your world."

"Maybe. Or experiment, I guess."

"Seems better left for somebody with a Sphere that isn't going to be an evacuation route. I guess you're contagious, though, so there'll be more winged people sooner or later."

"Guess I am. Or something. Maybe it's going into somebody's Sphere that does it? Who knows."

"If it's that there will still be more winged people soon! I will hang a sign. 'Contemplate your proudest achievements'."

He giggles.

"What are some other things people've done to get wings?"

"I can't remember any offhand... a lot of people don't say, and for some reason it's supposed to be rude to ask? And then I ask anyway and they don't tell me. Well, Faidre Kevarsin said he killed somebody, but I'm pretty sure he was joking."

"Wow. I wonder why it's rude to ask. Maybe people often feel proud of stupid things like not snapping at their mother-in-law through a whole dinner or saying a tongue twister five times fast and would be embarrassed?"