"Which plan?"

"For what you're doing?"

"The plan is for him to literally not let go of me for the forseeable future and let Maitimo collaborate with Imliss and our new parents on when to break the news and not face civilization-in-general until we can do that without a dozen cameras getting shoved in our faces."

"...gonna be centuries. Might still get cameras then."

"The plan is not set in stone but we at least need some time to--adjust, first."

"Also fuck 'em, none of their business."

"Yes, also that."

"Maitimo just adores opportunities to abuse his power for his loved ones, you could probably flatter him into banning cameras in the province."

"If I were going to ask him to abuse power on our behalf I'd probably go with something more surgical like not putting peoples' pictures on the internet without written consent or something. So I hear you got married too while I was gone."

"I did!! Not on purpose, mind."

"...How do you accidentally marry a Dwarf?"

"Mismatch of expectations!"

"What kind?"

"Well, we were happily getting along without any interest in the institution of marriage, for centuries, and then one day she said she was expecting a child, so then I concluded, horrified, that we'd in fact been married for centuries and should have a visible bond why hadn't I ever noticed it, and then I did, just like that."

"I'm trying to imagine how you fail to notice that."

"I mean, we weren't married until I realized that it should have been the case we were married, and then we were."

"Oh, that makes much more sense."

"It really doesn't make any sense, but it happened."

"It's somewhat less nonsensical," she amends. "Anyway. Congratulations insofar as those are appropriate so long after the fact."

"Thank you! Congratulations on being alive."

"I'm really excited about it!"

"We all are!"

"It's good to be back. Imliss was--worse at coping, than I was, when we thought you were all an elaborate fantasy."

"Oh?"

"I was...wistful, a lot, but I was usually not actively upset about it? Imliss...was fine most of the time but every now and then she was just utterly miserable."