"I can project happiness like other emotions while I'm actively working on it. Some things that make people persistently unhappy, I can fix. I can't just make someone happier forever if they don't have a specific problem actively making them unhappy and I'm not there with them."

"I suppose with your motives you would have behaved differently so far if you had that ability."

"...if I could cure depression I would advertise this as a service but I'm actually against almost all mind control almost all of the time. I come from an educational tradition about doing it ethically and even though no one else here knows what to expect in that regard it remains important to me."

"If you haven't yet, you should know that you will have customers seeking to have you change their slaves' behavior."

"Yeah. I will probably refuse a lot of those clients and I am not sure how I will be able to explain it to them."

"Perhaps 'I don't do mind control against the wishes of the person whose mind is to be controlled.'"

"Something like that, yeah. And that I can, you know, check."

"What thoughts do you have at this point about the manumission incentive program?"

"I am currently in a terrible mood but I think if I were feeling more within my normal range I'd be optimistic that it'd get a few people out of slavery who would've otherwise been in it longer."

"Right. But no thoughts on whether, at the same price, it should run longer or cover a broader area or provide a larger reward?"

"Oh, of those options I think it should run longer. Clear out anybody who was going to free theirs anyway and get some people who were not so firmly decided."

"Do you expect the average free person in Har to eventually be glad you arrived?"

"...I think that will probably ultimately rest on factors that are not fully within my control, like other entities following my friends here, and I don't know which way it'll wind up on net."

"What can you tell me about entities that might follow your friends here?"

"Both my friends' world and the one I grew up in have gods. Gods are far more powerfully magical than anybody else; they have limits but not limits that you'd expect to come up in the context of a confrontation with any number of mortals. The gods from my friends' world are the ones who exiled me. They were trying to send me back to my original world. My friends may believe them to have succeeded and look there first, which could attract the attention of the gods there; my friends doing anything about my exile could attract the attention of their own gods. Either process could in theory eventually impinge on Har. I don't think this is very likely in either case and I don't think such impinging would necessarily be a huge problem, though I do have the concern that if people here talk to gods the way they talk to me or each other they will be in grave danger of provoking a confrontation. One has to be polite to gods and 'it's too culturally bound to be worth trying for' as a justification does not make it less dangerous to not do."

"In that case, I would like to know how one speaks to gods politely."

"What would you derive from the advice 'speak as if the god is your absentee owner'? That might be close."

"...Nothing, though I believe in Devin there is a pronoun for it."

"Then - I'm only going to be able to say a bunch of little pieces of advice that don't add up to the important thing because the important thing is, uh, culturally bound. Pronounce their names right every time or not at all. Do what they tell you to even if they don't give a reason. Possibly especially if they don't give a reason, if they do give one that's almost like being open to followup questions. If they do something helpful, or something that they seem to have maybe thought might be helpful even if it was actually bad, say thank you. On a humanoid body plan it doesn't hurt to kneel and bow, I don't know what you do if you have a different anatomical situation. They probably won't be as polite about mindreading as me so think respectful or at least frightened and obedient thoughts. - I am exaggerating not in content but in emphasis, because it would be much less disastrous to make a mistake in the direction of being too deferential and careful around a god, but technically that's possible too. My friends' gods are nicer than the ones from my world and also more likely to talk to people directly."

He is going to have his solar system blanketed mile by mile in experimental wards against these entities. If that doesn't work they're probably just screwed. (The specific behaviors don't add up to anything except maybe something sort of vaguely akin to clan manners. The concept of a warlord who demands absolute obedience at all times and offers nothing in return translates perfectly.)

"Thank you for telling me about that."

"I don't think it's likely and if it happens it probably won't be for a while - months probably, more likely years instead than weeks instead."

"I see. There is progress ongoing on the casting of experimental wards against appearances like yours, which might interfere with your friends' arrival. I do not have the authority to stop this but can coordinate it, for example to leave a specific area open specifically to your friends and to ensure that the area is away from cities and suitable for their species. Any requests or other input you would like to provide would be welcome."

"Does it have to be a fixed area or can it just be - me?"

"Doing it as a fixed area is one of the simpler public works this government has achieved. Centering it on you would be the most complicated."

"If I were in their position I would probably want to begin by coming up with a way to have telepathic conversations across worlds, but I'm not, so I don't know what strategy they'll settle on."