When she thinks she can see him without crying again, she holds her baby close and walks silently back to Rana's.
The room has been replaced with - something else. She has no idea what this means. She has nobody to ask but Rana. Everything she asks places her further in his debt, of course, but it hardly matters now.
She steps inside.
"...what happens if people do? Uh, if it's not rude to ask questions, I'm not super up on my fairy lore."
"Cecelia, can you explain to the mortals how they can avoid problems, it won't entangle them if you do it -"
Nodnod. "If people learn each other's birth names they'll be entangled, like with debt, and hurt each other when they do things the universe disapproves of, except for names you can't get rid of the entanglement by evening out the debt. I should have said, I'm sorry - "
"She previously explained that debt accumulates when people interact, and if you're in someone's debt, or the other way around, then you both get punished when either of you does something the universe disapproves of, like lying. It counted "I've seen ghosts with more color" as lying. So -- we should avoid interacting with the fairy, mostly."
"Okay. This information would have been good to know thirty seconds ago, but we work with what we have. What all causes debt?"
"Asking questions. Accepting food from people. Hearing stories. Hearing music. Seeing art. Hugs. Sex. Accepting gifts or favors. Having been born, children have debt towards their parents. Violence causes debt, but if you hurt someone who you're in debt to then fairyland doesn't like it and it'll punish you. Humans mostly don't incur debt towards each other, I think, that's why I have to explain."
"Okay. That sounds... complicated and scary. But if humans don't incur debt towards each other then that means I can give you food, right, do you want food?"
"Okay. Uh - before I came to Milliways I was also kind of a magical slave, and now I am basically not, I think, and I would kind of like to talk to you about whether you're happy, and stuff, about how your life is, and whether you would rather not be enslaved to fairies, but I'm not sure how much we can have that conversation with your owner person standing there, you know?"
"...maybe just, like, across the room? And you can have your fairy person between you and everyone else so if I try anything he'll get there first."
"I haven't done anything wrong, I don't know why they're so - we stayed in court overnight because you wanted to -"
Nodnodnod. Hug. Because he seems like he needs one and maybe so does she.
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