Please go, for now.

He casts thoughts out to those two listening-in blues he doesn't recognize. Do you have statistics and studies that specifically compare same-caste groups who spring severely and who spring mildly?

"- compare them along what axes?"

I am trying to make the case that we will get along with Amentans better if they have mild springs to some of my particularly stubborn kin. Data might help with that if you can think of any relevant studies, or else more perspectives from Amentans. We'll want to talk to Ruan of Baravi when he arrives too.

"I'll get you some cites."

"Off the top of my head bad springs increase crime. Fraud and population violations and some violent crime and things like that."

We don't really have an emotional reaction to violent crime but it's at least predictive. I'm impressed by the population control treaties to be honest. Amentan countries can keep their word. It's just that not every Draak believes that and I have resolved myself to acting with them - or at least not against them.

To be more clear, they agree that mild springs would be good for relations but don't think it's worth it given theological reasons not to - those reasons being mostly that magic is special and Draak are special and you are not. Plus a general conservatism about sharing things that may be a mark of our kind.

"I'm not sure there are any traits of ours we feel that way about."

Theological feeling is not necessarily responsive to logic and facts and reason. I know asking Amenta to change how it handles pollution would be... Difficult.

"That's true. Someone else handling it differently would affect how we could trade with them and I guess would give us a lot of pause about helping them colonize. It wouldn't make it better if they did it without us paying attention, though."

...This seems like a relatively good time to bring up a certain delicate topic.

Yes, your current pollution arrangements give us a lot of pause about helping you colonize. The existence of a permanently polluted class of people does not mesh well with one of our own theological tenets which can be summarized as: Everyone should have at least a chance. I have discussed reds with theologians before and may want to meet some of them again.

"I'm sure Doet can grab some more for you, and heard Baravi was also able to get Bloom an opportunity to look at some. A chance to do... what exactly?"

Our observations of them have only led to more concern, in fact.

...I understand how they must be separated. How allowing reds to interact with other castes feels completely intolerable and would never work. But this is something that seems deeply unfair and wrong to Draak, that a red lives as they do simply because they have the misfortune to have red parents.

I want to find a way for the red caste to stop existing, without killing them all.

"A lot of people hope that one day we can pension them off, once we have robots. They don't react well to the idea, though."

Well, they spring. And once you no longer need them someone might decide to kill them all.

"I'm sure we could avoid killing them all, especially as part of an effort to accommodate your theology. They do spring. Maybe the Enkindlers can fix that?"

They would have trouble imposing an effect that the target does not want, or even feels conflicted about. I was speaking with theologians about things like mind-transfers and matter replacement, which might be possible with a derivation of the True Song of Healing.

...I or two others I could point out can recharge those healing rods for a reasonable fee if any have been used up. And I have more.

"...we'll be delighted to get those auctioned off. Is that germane to reds?"

Only in that the subject of healing magic came up as I thought about them. The healing can create matter, and such matter is entirely new and would be clean at first.

"I haven't gotten any reports of new conclusions from the theologians on that front."

"Me either."

...I was under that impression that it had been agreed. Perhaps I made an erroneous assumption at some point. I would be happy to demonstrate the creation of new matter by magic to any theologians.

"Let me look that up for you," says one of the blues. "- yeah, they say they agree that new matter wouldn't start polluted but it hasn't been demonstrated that you can do that without the new matter being immediately polluted by the old matter touching it."

Good. Yes, I meant that the new matter was clean. Not that healing would suffice to clean reds.

"Of course it would be delightful if there were a way to get them cleaned up."

That would be much better than pensions or genocide from our perspective too! But for all that our kind can do things yours can't, these abilities do not appear from nowhere. 

I am not the expert in biology and medicine, but hopefully our kind can develop one of the things I have heard theologians saying would fix it. Though all the options I am aware of would be very difficult.

"And there are many millions of reds, through the whole world."

You start moving a mountain by picking up a single rock. Or, really, you start by thinking about how the project should go, but wise-sounding platitudes are appealing and not entirely invalid.