"I don't know what's going through her head," snorts River.

"Most people don't know what's going through their own heads, not really. Well, I've apologized, you don't want a map, I don't actually have any other reason to be here. Goodbye, at least for now?"

"Bye."

"If I fed you, then you couldn't envassal me with food but my name would still work. If I knew your name, then if I also fed you it would mean that you'd still be my vassal if I forgot your name but wouldn't otherwise do anything, and if you fed me it wouldn't envassal me."

"So I can fully believe you about these rules unless you and River are actually close friends running some sort of elaborate con, which is frankly rather absurd why did I even think of it."

"I barely know River and don't like her to the extent I know her, and this isn't going to come up in the first place."

"Exactly. This place is really pretty compared to home, you know, but as much as I want to go exploring I don't much like the idea of finding more fairies who will all want my name. Would I pass more or less unremarked if I had wings of my own and pretended to fly with them?"

"Not necessarily. You're very tall for a fairy and I'm not sure off the top of my head of a kind you could pass for, even with specially-made wings, so you might not look like a mortal but you'd still look interesting."

"Could I pretend to be a kind from very far away that they'll never actually hear of?"

"I mean, yes, but you'd still be interesting."

"Being an interesting fairy seems like a better deal than being a very interesting mortal. I'll do fake wings if my wanderlust beats my caution."

"Mm - it means that people won't try to feed you. Well, most of them, it depends. Leaflets like me have a decent shot at vassaling another fairy with food because of how strong the claims on our tree are. But while that would be less likely you'd also look more useful. As a mortal you're a temporary curiosity until you do magic and look really interesting; as a weird foreign fairy you're potentially very valuable and could be kept permanently."

"In other words, 'heads I win, tails you lose.' Lovely. How goes gatecraft?"

"I think it'll take me a couple of weeks to know what I'm doing enough to start one, even on flat harmonics. The flat harmonics should let it settle immediately, though."

"Back to sitting in my sun-circle and practicing sorcery and resisting the urge to experiment, then."

"Sorry."

"...Not very much. But if you can stab them you could probably also just incapacitate them and run away without doing that."

"I'm not sure I can damage someone enough to put them down for the count without putting them in danger of actually dying."

"You can if it's a fairy. We're immortal."

"Well, it would still be highly unpleasant to be fireballed, so beware collateral damage."

Promise hands her another book.