"I am, some. I wasn't really friends with those guys either. We just have a class together... You should meet Sandy. She's a grad student studying economics."

"Oh? Why her in specific?"

"If I had to pick a best friend, it'd be her, and she was out of town until tomorrow."

"Okay then I think I should meet her. Have you not been keeping in touch?"

"Vacation time is her time. She's very insistent about it."

"Makes sense. I'd love to meet her." Then he snorts. "Wow it's gonna be weird. 'Hi Sandy, how'd vacation go? Oh, I've been fine, this person who's almost-but-not-quite a fair folk from another universe arrived here and I found out we're soulmates. Also we're going to revolutionise golemcraft.'"

"Well when you put it like that..."

"Can you find a way to describe the past while without sounding absurd?"

"'Sadde has some fair folk nonsense going on the end result of which is thus' will go down easier than explaining other universes and I can tell her that part later. It's really too bad the door doesn't stay open, lots of trade opportunity that way."

"...right. Trade opportunity."

"And your friends and loved ones and the magical oomph of that Empire."

"Not... a whole lot of friends and loved ones, after I turned. And I'd kinda forgotten about the trade opportunities, my brain had been too full of... Alec's absence."

"Didn't you say the - Tall Shadows are almost as good?"

"Yeah, but that's—they might still not work, and they might not like the places I find them, I might not be able to get them their resources..."

"I think that if you miss some of the goals they set they might do it anyway... As they said, this is the first time they've ever actually gotten anything for trade. They will probably want to get something out of it rather than nothing at all. I could be wrong, but I feel hopeful."

"Okay. Yeah. You're probably right."

"Hm, well, at any rate I want to get back to having fun with electrical experimentation. Don't worry, I'm taking safety precautions."

"Okay. Guess we'll talk later. I love you."

"See you tomorrow."

"See you, love."

And he flies on, above Windvale and towards the World Tree.

Nils calls him about halfway there.

"Hello!"

"Hello! Progress report since you seemed interested - I've finished the core structure of my new ship and started on redoing all the security enchantments. I'm looking into engines next, then control mechanisms, paint and furniture is last."

"Oh, cool! Do I get to see it sometime?"

"Certainly. Once I'm done with the most important security bits, that is. An example of paranoia at its finest, I am."