Nelen gets out of the truck and the next driver gets in, and Nelen goes home.
In the stairwell is a patch of darkness, like an oddly shaped shadow with nothing to cast it. He's a little too distracted thinking of dinner to wonder about it.
When his shoulder clonks against it in the narrow stairs, there's nothing to clonk. He loses his balance; he falls.
He lands in a puddle. No, worse than a puddle, it's some sort of open rainwater drainage channel, probably somewhere upscale because it zigzags very prettily. It's raining right now. There are people around, but not immediately around, and not looking at him.
Oh fuck he's gonna die. He's gonna die hungry and confused and without saying goodbye to his family. There's bound to be security cameras, even if no one's seen him yet. Maybe if he gets out of the running water nobody'll come looking for an excuse to kill anyone else. He scoots out of it as best he can.
Someone notices him moving, changes directions towards him.
There's a dark spot on the ground on the edge of the rainwater channel.
Aaaaaaah he gropes blindly at the spot.
And he's dripping on the stairwell in his district.
What.
The stairwell does not volunteer an explanation.
...he reaches for the dark spot, from his safe sitting position.
It isn't solid.
He goes and gets a chair and puts it between the path and the darkness. He sends his organizer an email.
He has dinner.
No one comes by looking for a red caught on camera somewhere it had no right to be. No one comes by at all.
There are back stairs. Everyone uses those for six weeks.
After that, when nothing has happened, Nelen goes down the front stairs, and moves the chair aside, and steps through.
It's not raining today. The rainwater diversion channel is tiled in something that looks like marble, very neatly and precisely. The buildings are white rock and glass and crystal.
The two people he can see from here have silver hair and...dark orange? Brownish? They wear it long and elaborately braided. They're too tall.
They're not paying him any particular attention.
There are probably Amentans that tall but there probably aren't two of them of different castes who hang out. The buildings are even more unlikely.
Nelen risks a few steps.
Every other plot of land is a park or a water feature or a sculpture. Straight ahead down the larger street there's a port. There are more people, unhurried, dressed elaborately. Mostly brownish hair, some more grey, one yellow.
No children.
Some people in an unnecessary miniature park up ahead are singing; he can't pick out any words.
He pulls out his everything, and takes pictures.
At that he does attract a few curious glances. Someone in the park stands up and looks at him; their brow creases like maybe they said something, but they didn't say anything and are in fact still singing.
...he drops his everything back through the shadowportal and freezes.
Brow-crease?
Frozen frightened red.
The brown alien stops singing and tries to say something out loud. In an alien language.
Nelen shakes his head slowly, wide-eyed.
If the brown alien were Amentan this facial expression would probably be curious, not upset. Maybe slightly concerned. They try another language.
Headshake.
Another one?
Nelen does not speak any of these languages.
Well this alien seems to know at least one sentence of, like, twelve, after which they will smile apologetically and shake their head.
"Does anyone here," Nelen says, his voice coming out too quietly, "speak Anitami -"
One person present can echo Nelen uncannily well but none of them seem to speak Anitami!
Nelen doesn't really have a plan for this situation. He looks between various tall aliens nervously.
They don't seem to be sure what to do with him either! Someone offers a pastry. The one who can imitate him is teaching another one to imitate him. Some other people seem to be arguing but not heatedly.
He looks at the pastry, and tentatively holds out his hand.
Pastry alien looks exceedingly pleased with theirself and hands him the pastry.
...he tastes it.
It does not taste like it is made out of alien proteins and will kill him, if you can tell that by taste.
Nibble nibble. Tentative smile.
The alien beams back at him. Points at themself. "Faervel."
Nelen points at himself. "Nelen."
If they want to trade more vocabulary it seems like no aliens of any color are inclined to bring him to the alien authorities. In fact some will go off to get more food to try to feed him.
He did not actually arrive on an empty stomach and doesn't know how to communicate that but he will tentatively attempt vocabulary.
The aliens are fast on the uptake and it seems like once he teaches one of them something they all know it.
They elicit enough vocabulary to ask where his parents are.
He is not nearly as good at retention; he mispronounces what he doesn't forget.
His parents are at home.
Do his parents know where he is? Does he need help getting home?
They know where he is and he thinks he knows how to get home. ...he's an adult.
Oh. He is very short.
They are very tall.
This place is called Brithombar. It is their something-city. They're not sure how to communicate what the something is. An important person is here?
...capital city?
Yeah!
(There really isn't much city. Maybe other parts of it are denser.)
It's very spread out for a city.
They do not seem to think so, not especially! Are his people like orcs, orc cities are tall and mostly only have parks on rooftops.
He doesn't know what an orc is but cities do mostly put parks on rooftops.
See, that's just not enough parks. Orcs are... somehow intensely distasteful and wrong people? They're pantomiming finding orcs very upsetting.
Nelen ducks into the portal again.
Whether because they don't know how or don't want to or can't, no one follows him.
He does wait around for a while, sitting on the chair and picking through the photos on his everything, just in case.
This time he waits another week before he goes in again.
The alien who fed him a pastry is sitting on top of a nearby building. She waves. "Nelen!"
Gulp. "Hi Faervel."
"You came two time! I say you maybe come two time, we should wait, but Thenteth say maybe not say orcs, orcs scary, maybe not come back."
"It was scary," he murmurs.
"No orcs here now probably. Can ask if you want but usually no orcs here."
He winces.
"- can't say no orcs ever, that's no good, but can say no orcs now for Nelen probably?"
That's not better, apparently.
She looks kind of stuck. "- orcs not that scary. No fun but not - they not mean, just ick."
Yeah she's really not helping but he has decided not to run away yet even though he's super thinking about it.
"I don't know what's bad, can you say it?"
"Why are -" That's as far as he gets.
"Why are orcs? Oh, Melkor."
"...what is a melkor?"
"Melkor made orcs. Long ago was only Elves and then he wanted bad things to be in the world so he hurt Elves a lot very much and if you hurt Elves forever and hurt their babies then their babies are orcs and that is why orcs.
Melkor is gone now. He got in trouble."
Nelen is confused and still pretty freaked out but still not running away! Go Nelen.
"I still don't know what's bad."
Nelen chews awkwardly on his lip. "I'm scared."
"Okay. No thing to scared. Orcs not here, not scary. Melkor not here, never here again."
"No, not of - not of those -"
"Of us?" She puts her hands up in the air. "Not scary."
"- to orcs?"
" - no? We ask them wear scarf so no uggggh but if they no wear scarf, okay, they can still visit."
"...scarf?"
"It helps. With orc uggggh."
"How?"
"Don't have to see them."
...Nelen gestures at his eyes, confused.
"Orcs hurt look at because ughhh. You - not Elf but not at all like orcs. You like a rock."
"I look like a rock?"
" - like, no one made you to be pretty to look at but also no one made you to be awful to look at. Did not intend mean, just. Elves like to look at rocks fine."
"...orcs are just ugly?"
" - yes."
"Oh."
"Really really ugly."
"I thought maybe they were - dirty -"
"...then they could wash. Ugly always."
"Oh."
"We give them scarves no - they no need give thing for the scarves. But some say 'no, no scarves' and come visit and it hurts."
"Where I'm from dirty things hurt people."
"Oh. Dirty things not hurt Elves, we just clean them."
"There are dirty things that just stay that way."
"There are?"
Nelen nods.
"That sounds hard for your people then. Can you put them under rocks or in the ocean?"
...he goes through the portal.
But only for twenty minutes.
She is waiting when he gets back. "Do you stop having a body when you do that or does it just go somewhere else?"
"...Did you not touch it?"
"We asked the - person in charge of the Elves - and he said we should ask Ulmo first and Ulmo has not said anything yet so no one touched it."
"Ulmo?"
"Ulmo is the - I don't have the words - sometimes if you ask the ocean a question Ulmo answers and it is a good answer but sometimes he is far and does not answer and right now probably he is far."
"...Ulmo is the ocean?"
"Ulmo is the...ocean's parent?"
"The ocean has parents?"
"Yes. If no parents how would there be an ocean."
"...rain?" says Nelen uncertainly.
She looks equally uncertain. "Ulmo is...like Melkor. Both of them can do very much, both of them have been since the beginning of the world, both of them parent the world. There are others too. They live on a star far away."
"- okay."
"Anyway I wanted to touch it but if CÃrdan says ask Ulmo, then I do a different thing, my mother say Faervel what a bad example you should not live in the city..."
"...then what?"
"...then I fight with my mother I guess?"
"Does CÃrdan do anything?"
"If it costs - things - to fix what I did then I have to give the things, if someone is hurt I have to say sorry, if I do not understand why I should not have then people talk to me so I understand. CÃrdan probably not talk to me unless I do something very bad."
"Things - uh - money? Money is - someone gives money and gets rice or shoes or something?"
"Yes. If it costs money a mistake I made then I give money for it."
Nelen nods.
"Touching the thing not cost money probably but still."
"It doesn't hurt me. I think. I don't know about you."
"Are you the only - thing - it works for?"
"No - I dropped something through, and it was fine, and my clothes come - no other people have tried it."
"They could come if they want."
"They're scared."
"I still do not understand what they're scared."
"We're... uh... easy to scare."
"Okay. Want to go look at things not scary?"
"...okay."
She hops down off the roof of the building. It is admittedly not a very tall building but it still isn't a hop it would be wise for an Amentan to make.
He blinks, and then steps into shoe covers and follows her.
She glances quizzically at the shoe covers but doesn't say anything. It's a few blocks to the pier. There are boats. They, like everything else, seem to have been designed as an art project at least as much as for any practical purpose. Some of them are unloading fish. Some are unloading passengers.
"Everything is so spread out and pretty."
"Pretty is important, we would be sad if everything is not pretty. I guess it is spread out if you are like orcs with roof gardens."
"It seems like it must take a long time to walk places. Are there trains?"
"There are trains between the cities. There are not trains in the city, we walk."
"You must spend a lot of time walking."
"I guess. Walking is nice. There are parks and things to see. I am not usually - it is not usually so that take a long time is bad."
"You're not usually in a hurry?"
"Not usually in a hurry," Faervel says agreeably, walking up to a cart and taking two kabob-things. "Want food?"
"- okay -"
She hands him one and eats the other.
He eats it carefully so nothing falls to the ground. "It's good."
She beams at him. "Brithombar has the best food. People come to eat it."
"From where?"
"Other Elf countries mostly."
"On this same planet?"
"Yes. The Elves on the other planet visit sometimes but not very much, it is very very far."
"How far?"
"Uh. You know how - planets go suns -"
"Planets go around suns - uh, once a year, but years might be different for different planets -"
"Then I don't know how say. Years for Ennor planet, this many." She counts up to twenty-five on her fingers.
"Planets turn around, once a day, how many days?"
...she starts counting on her fingers, but with an expression communicating that this will be quite a chore.
"Uh," he holds up all his fingers, "ten. Ten tens a hundred, ten hundreds a thousand..."
"We go by ten-one-one... three tens times a ten-one-one days in a year."
"Thirty times... twelve... uh..." He's retrieved his pocket everything and does the calculation on it. "Three hundred sixty. About a season."
She is curiously observing the pocket everything. "Yes. Twenty-five of those to go to Valinor. As long to see Valinor, they go as fast as seeing."
"...then how do you get there?"
"Valinor has big ships that fast. We do not know how to ships that sail the stars but Ulmo knows, other Valar know, Elves in Valinor maybe know by now also because Valinor has many things, they learn fast."
"But how do you - spend twenty five seasons on a ship - that's more than six Amentan years - how long do Elves live?"
"The ships are so so big, it's okay."
"I guess that would help."
"But still not very many people ever go."
"How did people know that it would be safe to go live on the other planet if it's so far away?"
"The Valar said it would be safe and people thought 'maybe they are not good' but three people said they would go and try and they went and saw and when they came back they said 'yes it is good' and then many others went. Some were still too scared, or did not like the Valar, and stayed here."
"Oh."
"It sounds nice but here is nice too and I do not want to spend a long time on a ship. And they speak a different language. The translation is pretty good but still."
"You're very fast at Anitami."
"Some people spent the week you were gone looking at the things you said and adding examples for a - word list. I am adding more when we talk."
"A dictionary."
"Yes. When you say a thing I add it to the dictionary."
"How? I don't see you doing it."
"- the way I gave money for the kabobs."
"I didn't see you do that either."
"- how would you do it."
"With this." He holds up his everything. "Or with paper, but we mostly don't use paper anymore."
"Oh. Well we do it with our - with the thing in our heads where information is."
"...I don't understand."
"Dwarves don't have it. Maybe you people don't have it. Elves - and orcs since orcs were Elves - have a thing in our heads. It has - it has us on it, you can get a person back as long as you have it, if they die. And you can use them to talk to people, and buy things, and add words to a dictionary."
"You have computers in your heads?"
"Are those computer things?"
"I don't know. If it's not that I don't know what it is. This is a little computer," he says, pointing at the everything. "It doesn't - have me on it - but it can talk to more things like it, and do money and dictionaries."
"Then maybe we have computers in our heads. We don't know how to build the things we have in our heads, they are complicated. We were made with them."
"Maybe they aren't computers, I don't think computers can - grow -"
"I know someone who has one for her sister who died, do you want to see?"
"...okay."
She sets off down a side street.
He follows her, nibbling his kabob. He pockets the stick when he's done.
And she comes to a house and waits, not knocking; after a minute another Elf pops out.
"Hi!" says the second Elf. "You are Nelen of the third planet?"
"- it's called Amenta. The planet. I'm Nelen."
"I'm Thiaben. You wanted to see -" And she pulls it out; it's in a locket kind of thing. It does look like a computer chip.
He squints at it. He takes a picture. "This was - in your sister's head?"
"Yes." She taps the back of her neck. "It's here."
"It just grows there?"
"Yes. By - by a hundred-forty-four days after you decide to have a baby the baby will have enough chip to save if you die then."
"It looks like metal."
"Bodies have metal in them. That's why you should eat green things."
"Our bodies have some metal but not - pieces of it."
"Dwarves if they die you can't get them back, are you like that?"
"Yes."
Her hand closes around her sister's chip. "That is bad. I am sorry."
"How do you get them back?"
"The Valar can do it. When Ulmo visits you can give him these. Someday we will know how to do it ourselves but we don't yet."
"Oh."
"In Valinor I think the dead come back faster and also things are safer and it is hard to die. But I don't mind waiting really."
"...you don't?"
"...no?"
"Why not?"
"...because things happen and eventually she will be back?"
"I miss people I know who are dead. I think I would still miss them if they would come back."
"I miss her, if I could get her back now I would, but -" shrug. "We have all the time."
"I asked before how long you live -"
Both Elves look bewildered. "How long we live?"
"...until you die? We live about forty years -"
" - how do you know when you'll die? If you knew couldn't you just - not do whatever you died of?"
"We die of being... forty."
" - that is bad."
"I never really thought about it."
"We die of accidents. One time a person pushed another person off a tall place and they died but usually not that."
"One time?"
Faervel frowns in concentration. "- six times. Not the pushing, that was once, but people killing other people on purpose, six times among Elves. Orcs do it more."
"How many Elves are there?"
" - we have the problem again where I don't have the numbers."
"Ten hundreds is a thousand, a thousand thousand is a million, a thousand million is a billion. There are thirteen billion Amentans."
"Not that many. Uh. I am not good at math - a twelfth of a billion maybe? And four billion orcs."
"...six is still very few."
"Killing people is bad. It is not allowed."
"It's not allowed on Amenta either, but it happens more than that."
"Well, it doesn't happen much here."
"That's good."
"Yes. - you shouldn't push people off buildings even if they scare you, if you don't have a chip I don't know what they'd do."
"...what do you do to people with chips?"
"You can make a promise with the chip to make it binding, so you can promise not to do it again and then if you try to you just - can't."
"Oh. - You said, uh, I forget the name - the people who don't have them -"
"Dwarves don't have them."
"What do they do?"
"Probably something with money. Dwarves don't have a government they do everything with money."
"...huh. I'm not going to push anyone off a building."
"I didn't think you were," Faerval says. "Just, you're from the third planet so it's hard to know what things you know about."
"Yeah. Sometimes people on Amenta hurt each other. It depends how badly and who they are, whether they get sent to prison or executed."
"Orcs have prisons but Elves don't because we - can't."
"...you can't?"
"We die."
"...from prisons?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"- I don't know. It gets worse and worse and then eventually you can't correct for it and you die."
"Oh."
"I think that if you are a Dwarf and commit so many crimes that no one will - take your money and promise to pay for your crimes - anymore then someone can kill you," says the other Elf uncertainly. "But I do not think they do usually."
Nelen nods. "Do you - have - things that say which jobs a person can do -"
"Which jobs a person can do?"
"Amenta has seven. Someone will be born and you already know if they will be allowed to - make computers, or do art, or dance. There are seven groups of things you can be allowed to do."
" - we don't have that. That sounds - are you ever wrong about what they will want to do?"
"It's not about what they want to do. The castes - the groups of things - are how they are even if you want to do something else."
"That's dumb."
"How do you make sure you have the right amounts of all the jobs?"
" - well, if you can't find anyone to do something, you offer more money for it. And maybe make announcements about how it's important and underserved and how admirable the people who do it are, some people like being admirable more than they like money. The Dwarves only do the money thing but that's because they're Dwarves."
"What if no one wants to do it anyway?"
"I don't think that happens? Most people will do things for a lot of money and admiration."
"Oh."
"If they won't, I don't really see why not letting them do other things would work."
"They can't get money any other way. It's different to want money when you don't have any than to want more money when you have some from doing something else."
"Oh. Huh. I think maybe we would just build machines to do something that no one wanted to do even for money."
This seems to be frightening for some reason!
Faerval is very confused about what frightens this poor alien.
Well, at least he doesn't run away? Although he does glance at the exit.
"Why is that one scary?"
"...sometimes people want to do that on Amenta and they want it in a scary way."
"Oh. Well. No one here wants it in a scary way."
"Are you sure?"
"I mean, I don't know what a scary way would be. But pretty sure."
"It's - complicated."
"Your world sounds complicated."
"Yes, I guess it is."
"Are more people going to come through? Your CÃrdan?"
"Maybe. They're waiting to hear more from me before they try."
"About us? Or about something else?"
"About you, about here."
"Do you need to see more of it to tell them?"
"It's less about walking around and more about talking."
"We can do that! We have lots of words now."
"It's really helpful that you're so good at Anitami."
"The - computers - are good at Anitami. And the people who know languages."
"Who are they? Why did they pick you to talk to me?"
"I was around when you arrived. CÃrdan said people shouldn't - all at once try to talk to you - but he didn't say anyone couldn't as long as ... as long as, if everyone else was using that rule to decide, there wouldn't be too many people. And I met you and gave you a pastry."
"It was a good pastry. I was worried it might poison me from being from another planet but it seems to be fine."
"That would be terrible. I did not think of that. Why did you eat it if you thought -"
"- well, I didn't have another way to find out, and you look a lot like us, and it looked like food, and when I tasted it it tasted like food too."
"But if you die you are dead like Dwarves."
"Yes."
"I would be very scared to die if it was like that."
"I'm afraid of heights but not of eating pastry."
"Okay. Well. If you want to talk to another person you can do that. If you want to talk to CÃrdan I bet you can since you are from another planet."
"...that might be scary."
"Well, you don't have to."
"Thank you."
"Scary because he is in charge?"
"Yeah."
"I haven't met him."
"I have," says Thiaben. "He was not scary."
"I haven't met any blues - blues are the caste of being in charge and important."
" - you don't need many of those. It's not really a whole job."
"They're about one in two hundred people. Some of them don't do jobs, they just have money anyway from their parents."
"Huh. CÃrdan is in charge because we - everybody says who they want to be in charge and then it's whoever the most people wanted. Most places don't do that but we do."
"Democracy. A lot of Amentan countries are democracies. But you can only vote for blues."
"We could vote for anybody. I think. Most people voted for CÃrdan."
"And reds can't vote."
"Reds?"
He touches his hair. "Red." It's a dark currant-y color.
"I don't see why you'd do - democracy - and not let people vote. That's - that's the only reason to do democracy is so people can vote."
"Most people can vote."
" - that's not - that's even worse than not having voting, I think."
"Is it?"
"If you don't have voting then, all right, you just think that the person who is your CÃrdan is good and should keep doing it. But if you have voting only for some people it's like you are saying they're better."
"Yes. And different people who can vote can vote different amounts."
"I think maybe your planet does not understand what voting is for."
"For?"
"Why voting is a good thing to do."
"Maybe. I don't really know."
"It's - the reason to have voting is if you think that a country cannot be - cannot have the right to ask things of people - if they did not have a say in it. Or because you think that countries will be better if they listen to voting. Those do not work if you don't just let every person vote."
"I think they think the second thing works best if the smartest people vote more."
" - but who thinks that? The people who got voted under the bad voting system!"
"I think most people on Amenta think it."
Elves look dubious.
Nelen shrugs and looks at his feet.
"I think maybe you don't need smart people to vote at all, if you're only letting some people vote."
"You need all people to vote."
"Smart people will be okay no matter what, though."
"Yes but you need all people to vote."
"I think the idea is smart people are better at figuring out - what to vote for -"
"Does it work, are your countries really nice places where everyone is happy?"
"No."
Elves look slightly smug. "See, you need everybody to vote."
Shrug.
"Maybe the reason you have lots of killing is that people don't respect the country as - having the right to tell them what to do - since they can't vote. Maybe there would be less killing if everyone lived a place where they believed the country had the right to tell them what to do."
"I don't know about that."
Shrug. "It could be some other thing."
"Doriath isn't a democracy and I don't think it has more killing than us."
" - yes, but -"
"Yeah, I know."
"I don't think about politics very much because I can't vote."
"That seems like another reason it is bad not to have people vote."
"Maybe."
"Well, here we think that the government can't tell you to do things if you don't vote. Kids do not have to follow the law until the first election after they are born because the country does not have any right to tell them what to do."
He blinks. "Do you have elections really often?"
"Every ten years."
"...even with shorter years that's a while kids could break laws."
"Yes. But it would be unjust to make them follow laws they didn't have a part in."
"Do they break laws a lot?"
"Not really. Most people don't want to break laws, and it's clear the reason for the laws."
"Then I don't think voting is why people here don't commit crimes much."
"That makes sense. Maybe people from your planet will come here and we can see if they commit crimes much and then we will know if it is the country or the people."
"...maybe."
"It could be not exactly the voting but the - kind of country you get when you have that kind of voting."
"But also Dwarves and orcs have different amounts of killing."
Nelen shrugs. "There are different kinds of countries on Amenta. All of them have more killing than you."
"It would be nice to meet them!"
"I - it's -"
Elves wait patiently.
"It's complicated."
" - okay."
"Sorry."
"I don't mind."
"I don't know how to explain."
"...orcs and Dwarves aren't allowed to go to Valinor because they're - not the sort of people the Valar want in Valinor."
"What sort of people do the Valar want in Valinor?"
"People who are very nice and happy and pleased about being in Valinor and not disruptive to anyone else there."
"Orcs and Dwarves aren't nice and happy and wouldn't be pleased about being in Valinor? Any of them?"
" - some of them but not all of them."
"What about the ones who are?"
"- not allowed."
"Because of other orcs and Dwarves?"
" - I think so."
"But six Elves isn't enough for Elves not to be allowed?"
"When they first invited Elves they didn't know of any bad things Elves did. Maybe if they knew of six Elves they would not have let anyone go to Valinor."
"But they can stay now?"
"I do not think any Elves have killed Elves in Valinor."
Nelen nods. "I guess Amentans cannot go to Valinor probably."
"Probably not. But who would want to really."
"I don't know very much about what it's like there so I don't know."
"It's nice but so is here."
"It is very nice here. You have a lot of space."
"Orc cities are really crowded," says Thiaben. "I guess someday when there are that many Elves our cities will be too."
"What do you do to make sure there aren't too many of you?"
" - what do you mean?"
"- especially if you don't die - if there are more and more people, they will run out of room."
"Yeah. You can't really solve that, though."
"We have people not allowed to have too many children, on Amenta. All the countries agreed."
"We don't have that. I don't think orcs would agree. They have lots of children."
"...when we didn't have that, there were wars over space."
"Oh. There haven't been those here."
"There aren't as many of you."
"That might be why, yeah."
"Yet."
"Orcs are nice, I don't think they'd have a war," she says uncertainly. "That'd be - really bad."
"But if they need more space and won't agree to stop having children what will they do?"
"Build star ships probably?"
"But those are slow, and you needed the Valar to tell you that Valinor was good to live on."
" - I guess. Maybe they'll stop having babies when there are too many of them."
"But you said they wouldn't agree. And you have space."
"I guess some orcs could live here if they didn't mind the veils? It wouldn't solve the problem for very long."
"It wouldn't."
"Elves would stop having children if we were out of space for them."
"Orcs though? Dwarves?"
" - I don't know."
Nelen shrugs awkwardly.
"What do you think we should do?"
"- I don't know, I don't know anything special, just how it works on Amenta."
"Hmmm. Maybe we can ask Ulmo that too."
"Okay."
"Ulmo could just say no wars," says Thiaben. "And maybe offer to help the orcs but even if he doesn't offer to help the orcs, saying 'no wars' should do it."
"...why would that do it?"
" - well, if the Valar intervened it would be really bad. So no one will - do things which might cause that."
"And everyone is good at agreeing on how to not have wars, even if the only thing stopping wars is the Valar saying not to?"
" - I mean, there haven't been any wars?"
"But you haven't run out of space yet."
"Yes. But I don't know what agreeing on how to not have wars looks like."
"I think the countries all check on each other to make sure they're not allowing too many babies, and the ways they have to not allow them are working."
"But if they're not going to have a war we don't care how many babies they have."
"...if they have a lot of babies, they will want space more than they want it now, and then they might want to have a war, enough to have one."
"Even if they know that'll mean the Valar come mess everything up?"
"Maybe. I don't know. Sometimes people have babies they aren't allowed to on Amenta even though they know they might get caught."
"But going to war isn't a person making a bad decision it's the whole country."
"I don't really know. It just doesn't sound like the kind of thing that makes wars not happen, just the Valar saying not to."
"Huh. Maybe the people who do not-wars in your world can come advise CÃrdan about it."
"- I, um."
Elves look bemused.
"- it's - complicated -"
"You said."
"Sorry."
"It's okay. It's - not worse than before you came."
Nelen shuffles in his shoe covers apologetically.
"What are those?" asks Thiaben.
"What are what?"
"The -" she gestures at her own shoes.
"- they're shoe covers so my shoes don't touch the street."
"Is there something wrong with the street?"
"No."
The Elves look at each other.
"Dwarves are weirder," says Thiaben.
"If you say so."
"How are they weird?"
"They just think about things weird."
"...like how?"
"Like the doing everything with money."
"Oh."
"If you don't like us for - whatever you're looking for - you could go visit them."
"- it's not - it's not that - you seem great -"
"You seem scared."
"Yes."
" - well, okay. Do you have somewhere to stay?"
"I was going to go back through the portal..."
"You can do that! But you can stay if you want."
"- I think I will go back through. But. Thank you."
"Sure!"
He smiles tentatively.
Elves smile back. "Lots of people have questions about your planet, if you want to answer any."
"- what are the questions?"
"Uh, what is your music like, what is your art like, is this the only language spoken there, what's the prettiest language spoken there, how are pocket everythings made, are you about a normal member of your country, what is your food like..."
"Anitami is only spoken in Anitam, there are a lot of languages. I guess Taroleen is prettiest? If you ask me? Other people probably like different ones -" He mumbles this while he sifts through his pocket everything for cached photos, and finds a lone painting of the moons and some stills from various theatrical productions. He puts on randomly selected showtunes. He finds a picture of a stranger's sandwich and a picture of a potluck spread from home with a smiling red-haired person in the edge of the frame.
Elves are delighted and imitate showtunes and are jealous of the moons ("Valinor has several too! And two suns!") and curious what the food tastes like.
"I don't know how to describe what the food tastes like."
"Is it like ours? If you were describing ours at home what would you say?"
"- the pastry was sweet and starchy? And the kabob was - salty, I guess?"
They note new vocabulary words.
He names the foods in the potluck picture and says whether they are sweet or salty, spicy or not, hot or cold, starchy or meaty or fruity or dry or saucy or cheesy.
Then these Elves will have as much information as anyone can reasonably have about food they haven't eaten.
Songs continue to play. He rummages through the desktop wallpaper folder and finds background art.
It's interesting. Does he know how to make one, can he teach them?
He has no idea, sorry.
They can maybe figure it out together from what he does know?
Maybe but it really isn't much. He'll mumble about that for them.
They seem surprised by this for some reason but pay attention and ask questions most of which he doesn't know the answer to.
He says "I don't know" a lot and eventually wants to go home and sleep.
Does he want to take anything back with him to show his friends? Food? Fabric? Trinkets?
- yes, that would be nice. "But - nothing too - obvious -"
"...obvious?"
"- nothing people will notice right away if they come to the neighborhood where the portal is."
"Okay. Why?"
"It's complicated."
Elves fetch him jewelry and fabrics and hair clips and socks.
He accumulates things, smiling a little awkwardly. "I don't have money from here -"
"No, no, they're presents, enjoy them."
"Thank you."
"Of course!"
And he takes the presents back through the portal.
He is back the next day.
Faervel is not around! Nor is anyone else he might recognize. There's a sign up next to the portal. A small child playing in a fountain looks over at him curiously.
He can't read the sign, but he does look at it. He waves nervously at the small child.
Small child looks back at him consideringly and then hops down from the fountain and walks towards him.
Aaaaaaaaaa he doesn't move.
Small child walks right up to him and curiously pokes the portal.
"Ah - I don't - I think -"
Small child chatters at him in the local language!
"I don't speak that but I think you should maybe - not -"
The kid does not seem to understand him. Portal poke?
"Is there anyone around - Faervel?!"
The child pats a stairwell in the red district. There are some not-Faervel people around, and one of them starts in his direction.
Nelen winces at the child, looks helplessly at the approaching Elf.
Child creeps curiously forward.
"Are you okay?" says approaching Elf, and then something in the Elf language at the child.
"I think the child should not go in the portal!"
Child reluctantly extracts himself from the portal.
Nelen relaxes, mostly. "Thank you."
"Of course!" says the adult, beckoning the child. "They're not supposed to do that."
Nod.
Child does not want to come and grabs Nelen's leg instead, still chattering excitedly.
Nelen starts shaking and bursts into tears!
...so does the kid.
He tries to pull his leg away.
Sad kid will let him do that and fall over on the ground crying. The adult Elf comes and scoops him up.
"I'm sorry - I'm sorry sir -"
The Elf looks baffled, maybe that didn't translate. The kid keeps crying.
Faerval comes running around the corner, looking distressed.
Nelen looks at the portal like he very much wants to dive into it, but he resists.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm - I'm -
- it's complicated -"
" - okay. Do you need a doctor."
"No."
"Do you need a hug."
"No!"
"Do you need a boat."
"...a boat?"
"When I'm stressed I go sailing."
"I've never been on a boat."
"You're missing out! Uh, Elves hug to be friendly, he didn't mean it as a - I don't know - as a mean thing -"
"That's not the - I'm - it's complicated."
"You've said! But I can tell a kid 'you shouldn't hug the Amentans because they don't think hugs are nice' or I can tell them 'you shouldn't hug the Amentans because they'll freak out and scare you" or I can tell them something better than that if I know what it is!"
"I don't - I don't know how to - explain -"
"Okay."
The other Elf has set the crying kid down; he is staring at them and pouting.
"I'm sorry."
"No one's mad at you."
"I'm sorry I don't know how to explain. I wouldn't know where to start. I'm scared. I'm sorry."
" - why don't I teach you how to sail a boat."
"I - it's - I have shoe covers for walking around but a boat I think you don't just stand on -"
"No, you move the sails and things - touching things won't hurt you if eating things didn't..."
"You didn't want the kabob stick back, after -"
"- what would I do with it?"
"Exactly."
She looks so confused.
"...so it didn't matter, that I'd touched it, since you were done with it."
"- it wouldn't have mattered anyway."
"I don't know how to explain."
"But it means no learning to sail."
"Yeah. I don't know how to swim, anyway."
"Do you want to learn?"
"I... I don't know because to learn I'd have to touch somebody's water."
"And you don't want to do that because you're scared something bad will happen."
"Yes."
Sigh. "Okay. If Ulmo says nothing bad will happen will you still think so?"
"I don't know what Ulmo knows."
"Is there something that Ulmo should know?"
"I - I -" He's shaking again.
"- look, when the Valar won their war with Melkor do you know what they did?"
"No."
"They put him in prison for a while and then paroled him eventually once he said he wouldn't do it again. And Melkor ran giant torture-factories and bred people into orcs. Is the - thing- worse than running giant torture-factories?"
"- no, I guess not -"
"So then what's the worst thing that could possibly happen?"
"I don't know."
"Okay. Did your friends like the stuff, do they want more?"
"They liked it. They're worried about it being noticed though, more would be more noticeable."
"Noticed by who?"
"By - people who - by - um, visitors."
"Do they want some too?"
"- we aren't telling them, about the portal."
"Oh."
"Which is why we don't want the things to be noticed."
"Would they want to know about the portal?"
Nelen swallows. "Yeah."
"But you don't want them to?"
"Yeah."
"And you don't have to follow the law since you can't vote."
"...that's not the rule in Anitam."
"But - hmm, the law can be wrong. A law that says you have to follow it but can't vote is wrong. You can break it. They might get mad but you would not be doing anything wrong-wrong, just law-wrong."
"...we will still be in trouble if we get caught."
"Okay. But you aren't doing a bad thing."
"They will be angry we hid the portal."
"Then they should have let you vote."
"We think that if they find out, and are angry at us, they will kill us all."
"Well. That's - why?"
"- they will be very angry."
" - and they don't understand how to be angry without killing people?"
"Not if reds are the ones they are angry at."
" - you could just all leave."
"- maybe through here. But that's only one neighborhood."
"Why can't everybody come through here?"
"They'd have to get out of their neighborhoods - there are a lot even just in Anitam, and more reds in other countries -"
"And all of them everywhere people would kill if they got angry?"
"Yes."
"Wow."
"They hate us."
"That doesn't seem very reasonable."
"They - it's because we're dirty."
"And that hurts? But - they could just say 'you go here, we go here', they don't have to hurt you."
"Well - they do. Not too much since we do the dirty jobs but they do."
"- but you think they'd still hurt you if they knew about the portal?"
"Yes. They want to find aliens. You don't know how to go faster than light so they will want it less but they'll still want it."
"Well, they could have it if they would not murder people."
"You don't mind? That I'm dirty?"
"No? I am not even sure what you mean, you don't look dirty."
"It's not exactly the same thing. It's like being dirty."
"If I understood it, would I hurt if I looked at you?"
"Not looking, not unless you were extra sensitive. Touching. Or touching things I touched."
"Huh. Then I guess I don't want you to explain because hurting for stupid reasons doesn't sound helpful."
"Nobody here will mind?"
"No. It - it isn't really noticeable at all. I still don't even know what you mean."
"We do dirty jobs and our parents did dirty jobs and so on and so on."
"That doesn't really seem like anyone's business."
"It bothers clean Amentans."
"I'm not saying they can't be bothered, just, being bothered is their problem. They can - ask you to do veils, or whatever a thing that's like veils is, but past that they're - at the edge of what's any of their business."
"The shoe covers, and staying in our neighborhoods."
She glances at the shoe covers. "That makes more sense, then."
"I didn't know if you would mind if I tracked - the thing that isn't exactly dirt - around your city. So I put them on."
"That is very thoughtful of you. But we don't mind."
"If clean Amentans ever come here they will mind."
"Well, it sounds like they kill people when they get mad so I'm not sure we'll invite them to visit."
"I don't think they'd kill Elves. Just reds."
"- okay but that is not good enough to invite them to visit."
"We don't have a way to stop them if they find out about the portal."
"They will come even if we tell them not to?"
"I think so."
" - I think maybe you should really talk to CÃrdan."
"Why?"
"People coming who we don't want and who want to kill people sounds like a problem that is hard for us to solve, and if something is hard for us to solve we can ask the government, that's what governments are for."
"I guess..."
"We don't have to, it just seems like a thing where later if people came who weren't supposed to and killed somebody someone would say 'why didn't you tell CÃrdan.'"
"I guess if CÃrdan wants to talk to me..."
"I haven't asked but probably. You are from another planet and have a problem."
"Okay. I could also go get someone more important. I'm not important, I just found it first and no one thought someone else should go instead anyway."
"Do you want to do that?"
"I don't know what would make sense here."
"It makes sense to go to CÃrdan if you have a problem and it's kind of a big problem that you can't just fix or get your friends to help you fix. I don't think there are rules otherwise about who should do it."
"I can go."
"Okay! Now? Or do you want to do more things first?"
"Now is fine."
"Okay. We want to go that way." She points.
"Should I wear shoe covers -"
"If it makes you feel more comfortable. I sent people your explanation and none of them could imagine that hurting so I think we just don't get the thing that'd make it hurt."
"Are you sure orcs and Dwarves don't? In case they visit?"
"I guess we can ask them but I really don't think so. Dwarves would just - pay to clean up, if they did care."
"I'll just wear them until you've asked." He puts covers on.
She trots off down the street.
And he follows her.
About halfway there she declares "orcs don't care if our cities are dirty."
"That's good. Did you ask by the computer in your head?"
"Yes. Well, I asked someone who has orc friends and they asked the orc friends."
Nelen nods.
"Someone asked the Dwarves too but I don't have the words for the answer."
"If I had a spare pocket everything I could get you a dictionary but I don't."
"It's okay. It isn't a very helpful answer."
"Do you have words that get close?"
"Uh, they said how much we would need to pay them for them to ask enough Dwarves the answer to the question that we could be sure if there were more than ten Dwarves who cared?"
- Nelen giggles a little.
"Dwarves!"
"They sound like - something, for sure."
"They are very Dwarves."
"Do all three kinds of people here use the same money?"
"There are different kinds but you can trade them."
"That's how it is on Amenta too."
"Valinor used to not have money but I think they do now."
"They didn't have it? How?"
"They just gave each other things. Valinor has - there's enough things for everybody even if no one works, because the Valar help."
"The Valar can just make things? And get rid of things that aren't wanted any more? And move them where they need to go? All without any help?"
"The Valar made Valinor. They can definitely do all those things."
"Oh."
"But eventually they decided to have money anyway for things like - singing - where there can't just be enough."
"...singing?"
"Someone sings and people come watch and you can only fit so many..."
"Oh, concerts with limited space."
"Yes. They use money for that. And maybe for places lots of people want to live."
"That makes sense."
The city gets slightly denser as they move towards where CÃrdan can apparently be found but honestly not that much denser.
It's farther than Nelen is used to walking. He's flagging by the end.
The capitol building is pretty but doesn't especially stand out. Faerval walks in.
He follows her, looking around anxiously.
There are Elves sitting at desks and working. "You can wait here," says one of them cheerfully, "he's in a meeting."
Nelen stands, out of the way.
Faerval sits! And pulls out a sketchbook and draws the place.
He finds a game on his everything.
After a little while an Elf comes in from the back. He has a beard! No other Elves have observably had a beard. His goes down nearly to his waist and is silver and really shiny.
Nelen's eyes linger a moment on silver hair but then he stops staring. "Hello."
"Hello. I'm CÃrdan. My office is this way, please come in."
Nelen goes in.
"Faerval explained to me why she thought we should meet. I'd like to hear your account of it."
"She said that after I said that if clean Amentans found out about the portal they'd be angry at the reds in my neighborhood for finding it, and would want to meet aliens very badly."
"How many people of your planet know where this portal is?"
"Ten who also know it's a portal. A few hundred who could find it if they found out that there was a portal and not just a thing."
"And you trust all of those people?"
"I told the organizer, first, and she told the other eight people who know what it is. I trust her and trust her trusting them. The few hundred just know that they're supposed to stay out of that stairwell. They're reds, but they're not specific reds."
"What are some ways more people than that could find out?"
"If someone goes in the stairwell they could find it the same way I did. We don't know how it started, so I guess it could happen again somewhere else, probably somewhere with clean people since most places are like that. It could be - giving off some kind of sign, that they could see from outside the neighborhood and notice."
"How long has it been there, do you know?"
"Not long. The stairs get used. Maybe from a few hours before the first time I came through at most."
"What do you think these other people would do if they found the portal?"
"The other reds or the cleans?"
"Either."
"Cleans will clear us out of the building and come through the portal to explore. Reds might go through, or tell more reds."
"And the cleans are the ones who you are concerned would be hostile?"
"To us. Not you, I think."
"If we objected to hostility towards you?"
"They'll be upset if you've let us touch things they might want to handle. I don't think they'll be violent to you. I would be surer if you knew how to travel faster than light but you don't."
"As far as we know that's not possible."
Nelen nods.
"If they wanted to be violent towards us do you have a sense of what they would try to do?"
"No, I don't really know - I'm sorry."
"Even things that seem obvious to you might be interesting to us, like what weapons your society has, or how many people, or what they'd want..."
"They have guns. I don't know if you have those, I guess you might not. There are six hundred million people in Anitam and thirteen billion on Amenta. They want more space, everyone wants more children than they're allowed to have in the amount of space there is."
"Have you experimented with whether people can go through the portal if there's an obstruction on one side?"
"No."
"Are the people on your side of the portal in immediate danger?"
"Not especially, no."
"Okay. I suggest you experiment with whether blocking the portal does anything. Is there any point in defending your community on your side? Preparing for people to attack it and having a plan to fight them?"
"- we aren't allowed to do that. If we try to stop cleans from coming in, or if we don't do our jobs, it gets worse."
"All right. Are there resources which would change that?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, it's not a good idea to prepare to fight them. If you had, say, chips in your head like ours, would that make it a good idea? If you had, uh, guns? If you had a supply of some other resource you require?"
"I don't think so."
"All right. Are there problems on your side of the portal which you'd be able to solve with access to this planet?"
"There are some things we have trouble getting sometimes - but the stuff you have is very fancy, it'll be conspicuous - they check up on us to make sure we don't have nicer things than makes sense with how much money we make -"
"Why?"
"They think we might be stealing or something, if we have nicer things."
He frowns. "Okay. Are there things you're hoping to get from having the portal open and accessible?"
"I'm not sure. Maybe some people could come here - not too many, if we disappear in large numbers they'll notice, but -"
"You're welcome to come here."
"How many?"
"I suppose not more than a few dozen a day so we can get them settled and acclimated, barring emergencies."
"You don't have a population control policy, yet - it's probably better to already have one -"
"I don't really want to have a population control policy, it sounds like it'd be hard for people to follow the law and I don't want laws people find hard to follow."
"- people will have a lot of children if they're allowed."
"Orcs have a lot of children."
"How many?"
"I'm not really sure. I think there are orcs who've had 50."
"- oh, we can't have that many, we don't live long enough and aren't fertile most of our lives -"
"Well, we'll see what we can do about those things, too."
"We'll have to think about how to get people in here in a way that doesn't attract attention. Maybe we can - pretend the people who disappear are dying -"
"They won't be worried by that?"
"Oh, they might, but not in a way that makes them look, I think. Maybe if we got enough reds in that way, they'd bring some in from other countries and they could have a chance too."
"How would you claim you were dying?"
"Maybe a disease, it'd explain a lot of people dying at once. And discourage them from getting close to look."
"Lots of people die of diseases?"
"Not usually, but it could happen."
"Then that sounds like a reasonable solution, though I still think we could check whether the portal can be blocked, in case it can."
"Yes, that makes sense."
"Do you need anything else from us?"
"If people come here where will they go? What can they bring?"
"I can't think why they shouldn't bring anything that fits through the portal. They could live here or move somewhere else that suits them better."
"But there are open apartments? - they won't have any money, or, not money here -"
"You're right, we should have a fund to help people relocate."
"Where will the money come from?"
" - from our government."
"There are three million reds in Anitam."
"Do you have a sense of how many resources they'll need from the fund?"
"No - I don't know what your money's worth or how far it goes -"
"What do you think is a realistic amount of resources a family relocating might need? A year of food and rent?"
"That's - a season - uh - do we even need the same amount of food - how hard is it to get jobs around here -"
"It isn't very hard for Elves but I don't know if it would be harder for your species, if you are weaker or get tired easily or if there's lots of work you can't pick up."
"We might be. I don't know."
"Okay. Then we can do monthly payments that are enough to support new immigrants, and revisit that once we know more about which work suits you."
"We'll have to figure out how to decide who goes - we can do that on our end, I suppose -"
"It'd be important to us that everybody get the chance but I think it makes sense for you to decide details yourselves."
"It'll have to be slow so it matters who is first."
"That makes sense. Do you have other questions for us?"
"What are the laws, here?"
"We have twelve laws. Each law has three exceptions. It can be a lot to remember. Do you want a written copy?"
"I can't read your writing. I could take notes on my everything. ...twelve isn't many."
"Maybe your people have better memories!"
"We don't memorize all the laws."
"It seems like that would make it hard to be held responsible for breaking one."
"We have an idea of when unfamiliar laws might apply and then we can look them up."
"Okay. Well, our twelve laws are:
1) Causing harm or injury to other people is prohibited. You may be obliged to demonstrate that you are capable of not causing harm in the future.
2) Taking, damaging or destroying the possessions of other people without permission is prohibited. You may have to return possessions you took without permission, and you may have to pay for other costs associated with the taking.
3) If you lie to people in the course of forming a contractual agreement you must recompense them for this harm and for damages determined by the Dwarven oversight board For Elves And Babies.
4) You should take reasonable care to ensure that interactions with someone, in person or over osanwë, are ones they are willing to have, and respect someone's request to stop interacting. If you repeatedly break this rule you may be obliged to demonstrate that you can follow it or obliged to leave the city or the country.
5) Do not damage or deface public spaces, or make them uglier. You may have to repair damage you caused or pay for the cost of correcting other problems.
6) In public spaces, do not interact in a way that makes the space unpleasant for other people, such as by being excessively loud, being inappropriately attired, engaging in conduct that will leave bystanders uncertain whether they should intervene. You may be asked to leave the space and you may be asked not to return.
7) In private spaces, the owner of the property can make their own rules. You must follow those rules or leave, and you must leave if asked.
8) You may not interact with a boat without the agreement of the boat's owner, and you may not engage in dangerous conduct in the waters or on the docks. You may be obliged to leave the city or the country.
9) If you want to engage in conduct which causes small harms to lots of other people, you must either get permission through the government or pay for a permit issued by the Dwarven oversight board For Elves and Babies.
10) The parents of children under the age of twenty need to maintain documentation of who would care for their children in the case of emergencies, and are prohibited from dangerous activity.
11) If something is prohibited, assisting someone in doing it, or assisting someone in disguising that they have done it, are prohibited.
12) If you are not sure if something is legal, ask before doing it."
"- we aren't Elves or babies," Nelen points out. "And Amentans twenty seasons old aren't children. A lot of this seems like it might come down to definitions - maybe it's clearer in your language? A lot of our laws are just defining things for legal purposes, maybe that's why we have so many more."
"It's probably clearer in our language. We have a small dictionary for yours. I will suggest that the Dwarf oversight board rename itself."
Nelen scans his notes. "I think all my questions about this are about how the words are interpreted."
"I can try to clarify for you even with a small dictionary."
"Harm, reasonable care, uglier, excessively, inappropriately, conduct that will leave bystanders uncertain if they should intervene - there might be situations where you can't leave a private space right away, that's less an interpretation - uh, dangerous, lots, not sure, and, who you're supposed to ask."
"Hitting people is harm, throwing things at them, making their surroundings dangerous such as by putting things in their food, making the dock slippery, or leaving pins on their floor. Things that have been agreed not to be harm include telling someone they are worse than Melkor and should die and stay dead, convincing their child to run away from home, or convincing them not to vote. Those cases were - argued."
"How are cases argued here?"
"We have a big building that seats many people. Anyone who is interested can come and speak, and the issue is not decided until everyone who is interested has spoken."
"Then what?"
"Then no one gets in trouble since it was unclear but in the future the law is the way we agreed on."
"...what if people don't agree no matter how much everyone talks?"
"Oh, they do."
"How?"
"Once everyone understands the considerations they can come up with a solution that requires about as much compromise from everybody."
"What if they disagree about how much compromise an idea requires?"
"Then they discuss it some more."
"...what if this goes on a very long time?"
"Then we can agree on a temporary solution while the permanent one continues to be discussed."
"What if you can't agree on that either?"
"That hasn't happened. I would be very surprised if it did. The current laws are in place until there's agreement on new ones, in any event."
"This sounds like it might lead to a lot of someone's life being taken up by arguing until they pretended to agree."
"That isn't really a problem we have had since we do not die of being forty."
"We do. If we come here..."
"Then we could impose time limits. If discussions are lasting endlessly, which is not typical."
"I think you might be - agreeable."
"It seems like the people of your world are behaving in a way that'd make it harder to come to conclusions agreeably with them."
"Well, yes."
"You think you're not likely to agreeably come to conclusions even without that problem?"
"I think it's more complicated than that."
"How do you do it?"
"The organizers make decisions for red communities. And we deal with whatever the cleans tell us we have to do."
"How do you decide who is an organizer? What happens if one does their job badly?"
"The organizers have assistants and assistants who more people trust and who think they can do the job better take over when the organizer stops working."
"Are people happy with how that works?"
"Mostly, yes. Not everybody agrees."
"What do they want to do?"
"Uh, organizers arrange to keep the price of child credits down and anybody who bids more than they're supposed to gets in trouble from all directions when the organizer says so, and I imagine they wish they could instead do what they liked without consequences."
"So if we had some places that were run like your neighborhoods, or people could come live in our cities, that would work?"
"I think so."
"Why don't we start with that as a plan, then, and we can always adapt it around whatever problems arise."
Nelen nods.
"Should I get those laws translated better so you can take them to your people to review?"
"And all the rest of the definitions I wanted would help."
"I will have someone try that. If we don't have enough of your words would you be willing to sit down with them and help us learn more?"
"Yes."
"Thank you."
"Of course."
"Do you need me for anything, this room is giving me anxiety," says Faerval.
"I don't. I don't know if Nelen does."
"...how is the room giving you anxiety?" asks Nelen.
"It's all formal and fancy."
"I think I'm okay. Thank you for showing me here."
"For sure!" She skips out.
Nelen fidgets.
"Does the room give you anxiety?" says CÃrdan gravely.
"Not more than things in general do."
"Is there anything else I can do for you?"
"I - don't think so - what should I do for more words -"
"I'm not sure which things we'll get tripped up on but we will ask you when we do."
"Okay."
Elves set to coming up with a better translation of their laws! They need some words from him; Elves apparently have a lot of different words which mean 'reasonable' with slightly different shades of meaning with respect to whether society at large would consider the action reasonable in its own right or reasonable in the context of information about the situation or reasonable in the context of information about the mental state of the actor, and they are not sure what the corresponding Anitami words are.
Anitami has fewer words about reasonableness than that.
Huh. How should they translate it then.
Nelen is not sure, but he will hazard guesses!
Elves also have several more words for topics related to the extent to which an outcome is someone's responsibility. And tons more words for boats. And fewer words for things related to evidence and criminal procedures.
Nelen does his best to accommodate these nuances with his dictionary app and neologisms.
Then he can have a list of the twelve laws and their exceptions, with everything reasonably[to-a-person-without-context-about-the-mental-states-of-other-actors] defined.
Oh good.
"Should I go home now or is there anything else I should stay for?"
"I think that's everything we'd need right now."
"Thank you. - I'm not sure I'll be able to find my way back."
"I think Faerval is singing on the roof. I can invite her back down."
"Oh, I thought she'd gone altogether - thank you."
Faerval comes back a few minutes later. "Hey!"
"Hi."
"You wanna go back?"
Nelen nods.
"Do you want me to carry you? You got tired on the way here."
"I - are you sure?"
"Yes? Are you much denser than you look."
"I don't think so. I think about like water. I just -"
"Yes, your world thinks you are dirty and it would hurt them. But we don't care about that."
"- my feet do hurt."
She steps closer and bends over to scoop him and stops with an eyebrow inquisitively raised. "Okay?"
In a small voice: "Okay."
Scoop.
She sets off out the front door.
He is a little stiff in her arms but doesn't complain. He watches the pretty city go by.
She holds him snugly and mostly walks but occasionally skips and takes him back to where they started.
He laughs, the first time she starts skipping.
Awwwww then she'll skip more.
Then she will deposit a softly giggling red by the portal. "Thank you."
"Of course!"
He goes.
The next day he comes back with another red, much older than him, wrinkled and limping.
It's lightly raining. There are Elves about; one of them calls Faerval.
Nelen thanks that one. The reds do not have umbrellas; they just are rained on.
There are some naked Elves dancing in the rain down a cross street but most Elves have umbrellas.
Faerval has an umbrella when she comes. "Hi! You brought a friend! I'm Faerval. ...you didn't bring an umbrella. Let's duck inside." And she opens the door to the nearest building.
"I don't have an umbrella," says Nelen. "And we didn't know it was raining here. This is Samfek."
Samfek ducks her head politely.
The nearest building appears to be a kids' craft store! It contains kids; in a corner some of them are making a mess.
Faerval fetches a towel and offers it. "Did your people like the rules?"
"I still think it will be complicated," says Nelen, "but better than home. Samfek is old enough that no one will be suspicious if we say she's died of old age. She's a retired organizer. We were thinking she could move here first and organize for reds who move here after."
"Okay! That sounds good. Do you know where you want to stay, Samfek?"
"No," says Samfek, "I don't know anything about available apartments here."
"Okay. Well, I can get you a tour but maybe when it's not raining. They're all really pretty."
"Nelen mentioned that was a concern of your people."
"I know someone who designed some of the buildings. They spent forty years on it. It's the kind of thing you can't not get right."
"I think you'd be unhappy on our side of the portal," says Nelen.
"We can close our eyes and sing. If we ever need to go there for some reason."
"You probably won't need to."
"That sounds more convenient."
"I don't need a lot of space," says Samfek. "I'm not very good with stairs any more these days, though, if that matters to the apartments."
"We can get you a ground floor one. Dwarves have these - vertical trolley things? But Brithombar doesn't have those."
"Elevators," says Nelen. "We have them but they're a little hard to maintain, some red buildings don't have ones that work."
"They seem clever but there aren't really Elves who have trouble with stairs so it hasn't come up."
"They're faster, at least for going up a lot of floors, but this is a short city."
"Do you like it?"
"It's pretty," Nelen says. "It takes a lot of walking to get places though."