"I mean that I don't want you to do it on my behalf, because you are already doing more than I would ever dare to ask to help me rebuild this godsforsaken country, and the last thing I need right now is to know I'm taking even more resources from you that I will not be able to repay. That's not a reason to deprive the Chelish people of healing, so you should do it if you think it's best, but not if it's just to make me feel better."

"...Élie, we're married. I'm not - keeping a ledger of resources that you owe me somewhere. I'm not saying I'll do it out of obligation to you, either. I enjoy being able to give you things you value. Much more than I enjoy fulfilling most of my other obligations, really. I can certainly promise you're not spending down favors with me that you'll need later, I'm just not going to tell you that I'm primarily motivated by bloodless altruism when I'm motivated by finding it personally fulfilling, and then, you know, also incidentally think that it's probably a good idea now that I've thought about it."

" - do you think I'm meddling in this country this much as a favor?"

"No, of course not – but I know that you care about the remedies more and you're doing this instead. I hadn't assumed it was all because of me, or even mostly because of me, but it can't be easy for you and I don't want the end result of everything that happened today to be that you had to sacrifice even more because I made a mistake." 

She is silent for a - pretty uncharacteristic amount of time for her, really.

"I would actually really prefer it if you didn't try to decide for me which things I care most about. I'm - possibly sorry I told you? Because you're thinking about this completely wrong. There is no ledger. There is no sacrifice. There is me, doing what is in many senses my favorite thing in all the world, which is solving problems for the people I care about and then basking in the people I care about being momentarily impressed and grateful for my hard work. You can ask me to, instead of doing my favorite thing, do the same thing for reasons that make it miserable instead of satisfying, but in fact I absolutely refuse to frame it that way, because that's stupid. If it will actively cause you pain for me to do something because I want to help you, then I'll do it for some other reason that isn't either of those, and I will not tell you what it is."

"I can assure you that this doesn't trade off against the remedies at all. The only thing that really matters on that front is a demiplane that I can do research in."

"I'm not asking you to do anything! You should do it if you want to and not if you don't, and if the fact that it won't solve my problem makes you not want to do it, you're under no obligation. I'm asking – actually, this whole time, I think I've been asking you to stop treating me like the problem that needs to be solved. I very badly want the convention to go well. I'm going to do my best to see that it was. It probably won't. I will be miserable about it for some time, and then I will get better – I know that, because I've done it before. It'll be easier, since this time I have something to live for, but it can't be prevented. I don't even think it should be. If this thing fails – if it fails because of me – then it deserves my grief." 

"Okay. That's fair, and I'm sorry. If you do need anything, let me know."

"We need a load of fabricates every two and a half hours at the Alexandria warehouse, and a demiplane expansion when convenient. I'll move the children to Dahab's house on the island, for the week, so you can pick them up and drop them off there as convenient. Good?"

"That's good. ...I am always very grateful for everything you do. I hope you know that." 

"I do. I am sorry, I didn't mean to make it worse."

Well. There's nothing to be fixed here, then.