I don't mind following your advice on who ought to have priority but absent a compelling reason to go really fast I'd like to keep it down to three or four a day. Today I've done you and Maitimë.

Maitimë probably knows enough to figure out who should have priority.

I'll ask her then.

Thank you. Take care. Don't be too efficient about the kingdom planning, it's going to take me most of a Year to have the gems set up even if psionic computers are amazing.

I'll try to contain my enthusiasm.

And a while later - my mother wanted me to point you at engineers? Or have them come by your office, probably more efficient that way -

Probably is, yes.

Can do. I think having them owe you a favor is worth more than trying to set up a payment system, among Elves.

Works for me.

So a couple Elves with valuable research projects can come by every day and get eidetic memory, and Isabella can be compensated with additional snacks! The Valinor Internet now has magical engineering forums with discussions of projects that would have been intractable before computers: human immortality, area-effect Vala abilities like Valinor's protections against decay, resurrection of Elves, making magical songs permanent.

All of those seem very useful! Isabella is happy to help.

Good! Elves can continue having their internally-socialist economy, then. She checks on the psion and mage teenagers; a couple of the psions think they might have building blocks of oath erasure. The girl with a Maia best friend has built an absurd tower of flowers where she lives with her Maia best friend. The boy in a long-distance relationship broke up with his sub and thinks this is partially the Elves' fault for not letting her come stay here.

Well, the relationship might have lasted if she'd come but at what cost.

Every eclipsed is different; one of the psions thinks they could make disobeying an oath less painful - but not less compulsive - and one's working from something like a memory alteration angle but thinks it can be made more comprehensive than that.

And all of them seem like grounded, well-intentioned kids who are upset about the plight of orcs and happy they'll be able to fix it, which is good.

Is your brother annoyed with me for telling you he knew and thus betraying his generosity in keeping my secret?

Nah, he didn't expect that to survive my finding out you had a crush on me at all. I said "you didn't tell me!" and he said "Shoulder Bella said not to!" and that was that.

Wait, how can Shoulder Bella disagree with actual Bella, isn't it supposed to be a model of you?

Well, it's not necessarily a perfect model. In this case it agreed, I was just pretending to be indignant.

Ah, I see. 

He has a very good model of me. Uses it as a conscience.

Yeah, I asked about that and he told me. It's cute. 

It occasionally makes me wonder if I should worry that he does not have one of his own but this works.

I am inclined to say that the drive to borrow someone's conscience and abide by it is a form a conscience can take?

I suppose. I asked him once what he'd have done if he were an only child and he didn't know.

I worry that about a couple of my sisters. But they're not only children and they're lovely people, so -

Who sits on their shoulders?