"If there were a way to move all of my subjects outside the reach of their meddling empire without teaching demons how to make worldleapers, I would do it. But I do not possess even the faintest of impulses to watch the world burn, and I have an even dimmer view of the character of most people than they do, and I will not buy my freedom at that price."

"Do they meddle with you very much?" Ristrell wonders.

"They are learning! They initially kidnapped my boyfriend and demanded I dismantle my empire so that they could if they pleased execute me without destabilizing it, and I did, but they seem to have backed off on that - though the ones who expressed willingness to back off were different than the ones who made the demand in the first place and I do not know how much they operate off consensus. The subtle artists are doing a great good and I am pleased to have them here. I was acutely aware yesterday that if they found us in the middle of our demon-summoning preparations they would almost certainly regretfully conclude there was nothing to do but kill me."

"I've been told that I should assume that any Bell is unlikely to make confident statements or offers that the others will turn out to object to; which is not exactly consensus, but is a bit like it."

"In that case I can probably stop wondering what happens when the ten years they gave me for empire-dismantling are up, it's only a few more months.

...I'd still leave if I could."

"In case they unlearn?"

"In case next problem they try to solve and end up shunting between dimensions instead has the good sense to ask me for some semblance of an airtight oath."

"If I were you what I'd wonder is what Issiak had gotten from his host about you that he thought you'd be a reasonable source of assistance."

"Oh, did they not tell you that part? I know how to keep Elves alive as prisoners."

"Not valuable, reasonable. And you may be overestimating the value of Elf hosts. I do hear good things about the eyesight, but on net the boost compared to humans isn't that much for our purposes."

"Yes, he wanted my humans, easier to keep alive. I am not puzzled by what in Ehtelion's head brought Issiak here, nor regretful that it did."

"As you like."

"I fail to see anyone who would have been better served by my having a better reputation."

"We don't know what Issiak's backup plan might have been; it's possible it would have been dramatically messier in execution."

"Sure we do: infest a flat Elf, accomplish same."

"I doubt he wanted you solely for osanwë, and it sounds like he didn't wind up actually needing anyone other than himself to be able to teleport."

"If you keep this up I will be tempted to resurrect him and ask him. Anyway, I invited you here to entertain an investigation, not an ethics lesson; I've never had much use for the subject and the fact their stance towards me won't budge at all now that I'm a few billion lives further in the black makes it even less appealing. Do take care. I hope Tide thrives."

She raises her eyebrow at "ethics lesson" but inclines her head politely. "And your empire likewise." Out she pops.

And a while later he says to Butterfly <I admit curiosity about how it went.>

"Mostly well. He was reasonably forthcoming and seemed to like her all right but she did get shooed at the end and isn't sure why. Also apparently Issiak was her sibling."

<Huh. And anything we need to know about what actually happened?>

Butterfly summarizes the practical highlights - "Ristrell has put some people on the planet with the weird vegetation to pick up the research on that."

<And has anyone checked whether Millenium's Fingon knows ->

"Not yet. He does have file access, but no one's promoted it to his attention more than the visit already would have."

Swish. <And we have better procedures in place ->