"Okay," says Karen, arriving back downstairs. "Apparently if I lie or break agreements then it'll hurt her really badly, and they both looked super concerned about everything, but they're up there."

"What a mess."

"Why's he here?"

"She wanted him here. I didn't - I don't know, maybe I shouldn't have told her how to do it, but she really wanted him here."

"She really likes him. Apparently."

"It's impressive, considering he has absolutely nothing going for him."

"He's good-looking."

He sputters at him for a second and doesn't say anything.

"Um, when I talked to her she said she was a slave before she ran into him, and then jumped ship because she thought he might be better than wherever she was before. And still thinks he is." Shrug. "She thinks he's nice. At least comparatively."

"Are the kids his? Or - prior?"

"Um, I think at least one of them's not, she said she was following one of them when she found him in a fairy ring. I dunno about the others."

"How many kids?"

"She said five, earlier. Most of them in his world."

"Probably doesn't wanna leave them, then."

"No.

It just seems sort of upsetting if the best we can do for slaves who walk in here crying with their babies is 'well, that sounds rough'."

"We can't even talk to him because of the fairies thing."

"Yeah."

"Could you guys get her kids? She said he was gonna help her get some of them back, I think, so she must think there's some way to recover them, and then he wouldn't have, like - leverage, or whatever?"

" - probably. In the same way we plan to get yours, some targeted teleporting once we have materials to use for targeting. This does require one of them to open their door, and arguably involves stealing from fairies, and I bet that's somehow bad. Might still be worth it."

"Sounds like the sort of thing that would activate their debt stuff, yeah."

"We could ask for their cooperation. If he refuses to let anyone else try to get her kids that's - more information for her, at least."

"Yeah."

"The other thing we should probably do is set the team that does diplomatic treaties with demons to drawing one up with the fairies. They've seen weirder, and - maybe we can negotiate an end to slavery for a lot of shipments of Pop Tarts, like happened in Osekieko."

"That sounds like your wheelhouse not ours but by all means go for it."

Nod.

"She's in love with him. Did you get the sense that he felt that way? Or for that matter had noticed that she did?"