"That's not how Jedi or Sith work. My home has - I don't have the word - a bicycle is a thing that makes going, you don't need magic to go on a bicycle, it does it a different way. We have things that do lots of things the different way, and we have things that can make people that way. I don't know of a thing that can give someone magic the different way but I don't think Jedi or Sith can do it, either, and if we can I don't think Sith are more likely."

"Okay... Making magic like riding a bicycle seems wrong to me but making people like riding a bicycle also seems wrong, and making people is either breeder magic or a kind of magic that all species created by breeders have, so...

Riding a bicycle is a 'skill' - something that all species can do if they watch other people do it and then work at it."

"I don't mean riding, I mean the kind of thing the bicycle is. Or the room that goes up and down that we used to get here from the equartiers, if that wasn't magic."

"Lifting the rocks which then make the room move is a werewolf thing. Making the room also needs werewolves and probably a bunch of other species. Same to make a bicycle. I think you're talking about how there are probably ways to make them without werewolves, same as I can make fire by walking into the sun until my fur runs hungry, but easier than that... And you can make people without using breeder magic?"

"Usually when people make people at home they need a male and a female, and the new person starts inside the female and is like the male and female that made them. That doesn't need magic - the only thing that's even maybe magic at home is the Force, and people who can see the Force are rarer than rolling twelve dice and getting a six on all of them, but almost all people can make new people. The other way, where the person starts inside a thing, doesn't need magic either; it does need things from at least one person but the new person can be pretty different from them. Because almost nobody has magic we learned how to do lots if things without it - my music isn't magic either."

"Most people have no magic, so you do everything without magic, okay. Wow.

Yes... it works that way, with a male and a female, with animals here, and that's the normal way to make people too, with a male and a female of the same species. But all people came from a breeder at some point in the past, and that works differently: a breeder and an animal make a person, or a breeder and a person. Oh, and it's also possible to make a new breeder with male and female breeders, but usually it's two females.

So we're not that different, it's just that, without breeder magic, there wouldn't be people, just animals."

"Ah, that makes sense - I can see how close people are to human and you're strange, that way. If you take some people of a species and only let them make more people from themselves for a long time, like if they all went to a different planet and no other people of that species were there, then that group of people will slowly change kind, and that's how new species usually start. Or if you're using a thing to make a person you can do those changes right away, if you have the right skill. But you shouldn't be able to make magic that way; you can't even make sure someone can see the Force that way. I don't know where your magic came from, everything I know says nobody should be able to do that."

"Yeah, I don't think slow changes can make new species. Kittens now learn their first hundred words three deci-years faster than they used to, but the longest distance that catfolk can go from their flame is still exactly the same."

He nods. "If your magic doesn't change at all with time - if there are never kittens whose magic works a little bit differently than the people who made them and especially if all catfolks' magic is exactly the same - then it's not the kind of thing you can change that way. But I don't know how whoever made you did do it."

"If the Lei was trying to get more Jedi from me, please tell them that won't work - my kittens would be able to see the Force, probably, but they wouldn't be able to use it without learning the skill from me, and if they didn't learn their kittens wouldn't be able to see it, and I don't think the Lei should have Jedi." For one thing they'd most likely end up with Sith instead, though he's going to hold back on explaining that one, it seems fraught.

"No effort was made at getting - kittens from you," (the Elvish terms for children of different species are not the most important words for him to be learning right now) "at least, that's what I think, and I think that such an effort would have had to involve me.

That was before. Now, Lei is certainly to not going to do anything to act against you in any way. We tried. We lost. Now all we have left is the hope that by helping you get the best information you can, I might protect some of what I care about while you change everything.

I'm not lying to you. I know that if you think I might lie, I am not useful to you. There is nothing I can do, but do everything you need from me."

"All right." How much of that was already there and how much is the mind trick? He feels a little ill, thinking about it.

"There were a couple other things - do you know if the apples are people? I should be able to tell, if you want someone else to say - I know it sounds strange but enough things are strange here that I think it could be true. And I think the Lei will feel better if they know what I think about the apples."

"No, they're not, but if you say you can tell, I'll believe you a lot more than I believe the FD. Oh, right, that's the 'Freedom Democracy'.

Freedom means that you can do what you want, go where you want... think what you want, say what you want, want what you want," she finishes with mild exasperation. "Democracy means that when the FD needs to do something and there is a variety of things they could do, each person says what they think. Whether they know a lot or a little, care about the country or care about hurting one person in particular, or just say the thing that reminds them of a song they like. And then they do complicated stuff with numbers so that there is one thing they actually do."

Rafiik chuckles fondly at the description. "We have democracy at home, the Jedi planet doesn't do it that way but the bigger group the planet is part of does. It works better than it sounds like it should, if you do it right."

"Good to know." Presumably the Freedom Democracy does not do it right, seeing as they destroyed the shrines.

She's not sure what to make of his amusement, but it could be worse.

"Sorry - people at home think democracy is the best way to do it, I haven't heard someone say it's bad like that before. I do understand that they've hurt the Lei very badly."

Okay maybe she likes him again.

"...Because democracy makes it easy for the Force to change what a country does?"

"I'm not sure it does! Maybe a little. The important part is that it shows the people making the decisions what's important to everyone, things like making sure there's enough food, and makes them do that instead of things that are just good for them."

"Okay, so I'm imagining that I'm making decisions about food because the democracy says that's my job. I want to take some sunflower seeds and, instead of letting people eat them, feed them to rats because I'm a werewolf and I like rats. My catfolk friends will be happy about this too. If I already know that people will be unhappy about this, and I don't care, how does democracy help? Most of the people saying what they want are catfolk and werewolves."

"There are different ways to do it and I don't know a lot about democracy, but one of the easiest ways is to have a few different ways of counting what people want and only do things if all of the ways say you can. So one way might be to give every person one say, and another way might be to give every species one say, so if there are a hundred werewolves and a hundred catfolk and ten elves and ten equartiers and ten breeders, and the werewolves and catfolk want to give the seeds to rats and the elves and equartiers and breeders don't, then one way of counting says you can - two hundred is more than thirty - but the other way says you can't - two is less than three - so you can't. Or maybe the breeders like fruit and don't care that much about seeds, and you say 'if I can give the seeds to the rats I'll also grow more fruit', and then the breeders say yes, do that, and you can give the seeds to the rats and the breeders get something they want too, and maybe next time it'll be the elves or the equartiers that get something that way. Or, maybe you give the seeds to the rats and the equartiers get upset about it, and decide that they're not going to go places with people until you stop, and it's a big problem for the werewolves and catfolk and they say that someone else should make the food decisions if you're going to upset people with them - and if you know that will happen, you won't give the seeds to the rats even if you would want to by yourself."

"Interesting... Yeah, you'd need more than two ways of counting, because sometimes species isn't important, but place is, so also count once for each town, and maybe also for each housechief, and each shrine continuously attended for a hundred years, and each species again but you count twice for the species that don't have fur or were created from bugs or plants...

So," she shrugs with one arm, palm up, "claws, but I think there are still good things that this kind of democracy would stop and bad things that it would do? Like if there were two things... or we needed a new swamp...or... oh actually here's a simple bad thing:

Suppose I want the rats and I say, it's good if the equartiers are upset, we don't need equartiers. If you want to go somewhere, we have sleds and ships and bicycles, and if you want to tell something to someone quickly, we have kitsune and tengu, but I think you never need to go someplace quickly - both go there and do it quickly. So the equartiers should just go away.

And the werewolves, who haven't eaten a rat in the last deci-year and are thinking only about how it would feel to crunch one, and who don't know that I'm wrong and we do need equartiers, say that sounds great. And also they don't care about finding new things for the equartiers to do or helping them go to a different country.

So every way of counting says great, we don't care about equartiers."

Or, you know, elves.

"Yeah, that can be a problem. Usually the way democracies solve it is by having a few people make the decisions and all the people choose those few people every few thousand cycles. And have a way for people to say things to the few people. So you know that if you get rid of the equartiers and that's bad for everyone, then everyone won't choose you again next time, and you want to keep doing that work, so you won't do that, even though if you asked all the people they would say to do it. And if you don't know that it would be bad for everyone then the equartiers can tell you, and if nobody knows, well, then you have the problem, but you'd have it no matter how you decided." He shrugs. "Every way of doing it has problems, but the planets in my home have tried lots of ways and democracy usually has the least."

"So if I wanted that job, I'd say to everyone, choose me to make all the decisions because earlier when I made the decisions for a town people were happy with what happened? So if all the werewolves and catfolk in my town liked the rats, and there weren't any equartiers in my town to be unhappy, it looks good, but if I made the decisions for the whole country then it would actually be bad. Maybe I like rats, maybe I listen to everyone and make very good decisions, but both things look the same.

Or would I say, choose me because I know lots about how to make decisions for a country. I've never done it before but I know lots."

"In a good democracy you need to say more than that, and probably for anything important there are at least two people who want it, so you have to say something better than the other person. One way of doing that is to have someone who knows a lot about how things are run ask everyone who wants the job a lot of questions and let everyone see the answers before they choose, and if they're good at their job they'll ask about how you're going to make sure all the species have what they need and want. Also, if everyone is doing it that way for a while, they'll learn what kinds of people are good to have making decisions, maybe they do pick someone who upsets the equartiers once but then next time someone thinks it's a good idea to give one species' food to the food of another species they'll know it's important not to do that."

She sighs. "It still seems like a complicated way to do, badly, what elves already do, but I guess if you don't have elves it might be the best substitute."

"What do elves do?"