"The person whose car we stole?"

That is insane! That is objectively insane! Haley wants to furiously demand answers from the evil conspiracy that has been keeping magical secrets from her, but she doesn't think she's going to get any of the answers to the questions she cares about from Katherine, because talking to Katherine will instead involve talking about how they just stole her car!

(It's a very nice car. Comfier than her Mini and the moonroof is amazing and it handles so nicely despite its size and...) 

"Oh, right, uh, also please put your seat belt on." 

Iomedae has encountered the concept of seatbelts and can do this. "We wrong Katherine. I think this car more good than Haley car. We have to answer that. But can also call Raoulin first?"

Well, now she feels defensive of her car. "This car isn't pink," she objects, because it's the first thing she thinks of to say.

Haley is pretty terrified of Raoulin's invisibility but he presumably can't hurt them when they're in a car going at this speed. "Um, sure, we can call him. I'll press the buttons and put it on speaker if you give the phone back, but then you gotta hold the phone while we call." 

"That I can do."

Okay. Haley will slow down even more and go an almost reasonable speed, only five miles above the speed limit, and take the phone in one hand and find Raoulin's number in her contacts (woah, she has so many missed calls) and hit dial.

She hands the phone back to Iomedae to hold and floors the accelerator again. 

Raoulin is galloping, flat out, down the road. The moon shimmers in the dark sky above him and his cloak flares out behind him and the road clatters like cymbals under his feet. He thinks he isn't going to catch them but he has to try. There's others with cars who can move faster, but Raoulin can cut through places where the veil is thin, and he's unusually worried that if Iomedae came from one then she might be heading straight back to one. So he rides, with the tip of his nose and his ears freezing from the rush of cold wind, and he keeps an ear out for the stirrings of trouble of a supernatural sort.

The last thing he expects to see, when his phone rings and he slows to a trot and he pulls the phone from his pocket, is Haley's number.

But he immediately picks up. 

"Haley, thank you so, so, so much for calling. Are you okay?" 

"Iomedae wants to talk to you and I'm busy escaping from your evil conspiracy so I'm going to let her do the talking actually sir."

She manages to make 'sir' sound like it's spelled with a c and a u. 

"Hi Raoulin. I wanted most important thing say that Haley only try to help me fight Evil. Next most important thing say I do not want to steal, do not want to hurt any person, want to pay for the things I doed. Next most important thing say that I do not know - things are not what I thinked. You did not kill us, and you could have."

"Oh, well, whatever would make you think I wanted to kill either of you? Just that your evil detecting power said I was evil?"

Raoulin feels it would've been difficult for him to kill both of them with half his powers and no sword, but has decided against saying this. 

"...that we tried to sword you. And I a running away foster child."

Well, if he was lost and alone in an entirely different universe and then magically detected that everyone was evil, he sort of suspects he might also try to do the things Iomedae's doing. He still needs her to come home, but telling her that right now won't help. 

"I'm not mad at you for either of those things. I learned a bit more about your world that you're from - did you think I was an evil wizard or something?" 

"I thinked...Katherine angry I holy warrior of Aroden, and want to tell Baronness, who I thinked also be angry, and maybe kill me. And I knowed that the law be angry if a foster child run away, andI think they kill runned away foster childs? Taldor kill runned away foster childs."

Things are clicking now. When Katherine went to tell the Baroness that Iomedae was faking, Iomedae thought that she was telling the Baroness about Iomedae worshipping Aroden... and of course she thought she was suddenly in danger. 

"I'm really very sorry I let you think that. I didn't understand what Katherine was saying but we don't have any problems with... Arden? Uh, sorry, Aruden." Why does the law in Taldor kill foster children? That doesn't - wait, he can ask those questions out loud - no, wait until Haley doesn't want to kill him before getting into his curiosity. "If you want to have different foster parents you can ask and the system will try to place you differently, or - if you really, really can't cope with the system I think we could help you run away but only if you really couldn't. Nobody would kill you, but it would hurt a lot of people." 

Haley has SO MUCH to say but she wants to say all of it very fast at a million decibels and she has to look very intently at the road so they don't die, so she sets her jaw and focuses on trying to figure out which direction is northwest. The fastest way out of Atlantia will be to Aethelmearc, and if it turns out that America is the issue then she supposes they'll head straight north to Ealdormere. She's always wanted to visit Ealdormere. They have such great bards - no, focus on the road.

She grits her teeth. 

Why do people keep assuming that she's only upset about being enslaved because of who owns her. "Robert and Jenny honorable people, this no about Robert and Jenny. You say America not kill runned away foster childs? But then why no all foster childs run away?"

"Well, lots of them do run away, I suppose, but usually they find their way back. And if you're not a holy warrior from another world, usually living with foster parents means you're safer and happier than being on the streets or living with abusive - bad - parents. I can see how it's quite frustrating to be in the system if nobody believes you about who you are." 

"If I no a holy warrior, I still happier working for money than being of Robert and Jenny? If you work for money, then you get to keep the money, and buy things, it is good. And if one day you so tired, sick, you no work, and no money. It is good choosing if to work. It is of God.

Since I was made a foster child I thinking maybe it is bad to make any person a foster child, but Scripture not say that, so maybe it is not so, maybe some people you must make a foster child, or the other things you do are more bad."

"Do Robert and Jenny make you work? And you don't get to keep the money?"

Raoulin's horror at this thought comes through clearly in his voice. As if Iomedae needed another layer of awful in her situation! He's sworn to be a shield of the weak; he can't let that stand. 

"...yes," says Iomedae in the tone of voice of someone who thinks this is utterly, blindly obvious. "Because I a foster child. ...was a foster child. Now a running away foster child. But I no did run away because made to work for no money, that is not reason to run away, laws should obey."

Oh, Jesus. 

"Iomedae, that's not the law at all. They can't force you to work and take the money - I don't even know if it's legal for kids in care to work at all. They're just supposed to take care of you and make sure you get an education. They're the ones breaking the law." 

None of this matters! Haley wants to know about the evil magic conspiracy!

No, that's not fair, it clearly matters to Iomedae to learn about what's happening to her. Haley should eat another tart.

They're almost at the part where they're going to get on the highway and then they might start encountering other cars. Haley briefly considers slowing down, but... ah, no, better idea! They're coming up on a part of a road with streetlights! She can turn her headlights off and then the cops won't even see her.

Haley keeps letting Iomedae talk. This will definitely require a little more focus on the road. 

“I… think something not understanding. Robert and Jenny tell social worker, Iomedae working hard, good foster child, social worker says yes good. Social worker not obeying law? … why have a foster child at all if no can make them work for no money? The reason people buy foster childs is having work want to make someone do!” 

"You can't buy foster children or make them work. That's human traffick-" and his blood runs cold. 

Oh God did they ever actually verify that Iomedae was actually a foster child in the foster system and not a trafficked forced worker? Did they check? He could have had Nicole look into that and he did not, is this his fault?

No, wait, he put that note in her school bag, he knows she goes to school, the authorities have to at least know she exists... but that doesn't mean she isn't being abused or mistreated.

God. He hates this.

He tries to speak as gently as possible, though his fists are painfully tight around his reins and his phone, and his voice shakes a little. "Children need someone to look after them, so the foster system is supposed to give you temporary new parents, if your parents are bad or they can't look after you anymore. They're supposed to treat you like a daughter, Iomedae."

Haley takes the turn onto the highway far too fast, and the ramp isn't lit as well as the preceding street nor as well as the highway. 

Back wheels slide out! The car is suddenly not going where she pointed it! There's a terrifying bump as they run onto the grass verge! 

She yanks the steering wheel and they just barely scrape the metal barrier outside the verge of the road with a horrible terrifying screech but they don't crash, they're alive, and she can aim the car down that beautiful glorious straight highway and remember to breathe. 

“…Haley, should be running at speed the car can do a long time, no fast as car can go.”