"There are some people I hate talking to, but it's not most of them."

"So - forgive me for prying, but - why do you live like this?  Am I wrong, that there's nobody else in this half of the palace?  When I asked the government side about you, they pointed me to someone who had talked to you three times in his life."

"Well, people don't like to talk to me, because I'm terrifying. All the people in this half of the palace are slaves because when people have a choice about whether to be near me they choose not to."

"Are they-- You could just--"  Augh.  He doesn't mind much if the Emperor decides to kill him, but he doesn't want it to be because he was rude when he could instead try to help fix this.  Deep breath.

"I really hate that.  Do you want me to go on about why I hate it and what I think you could do about it?  I'd rather stop before the part where you throw me off a building."

"Eh, these days I only throw people off buildings if they're really persistently annoying. Sure, let's hear it."

"It's impossible to know anything about you besides rumors, which are mostly terrifying and confusing.  Because you don't - it's not even that you don't talk to people, you don't even exist around people."  Imar sounds like he finds this state of affairs deeply personally offensive, for some reason.  "In any normal place I could-- talk to a guard or servant, or even a random shopkeeper more likely than not, and-- feel like I had a decent idea of what you're like, what to expect if I run into you-- or at least feel like the person I'm talking to has a decent idea, or knows someone who does, or-- anything." 

It's so hard to explain, this thing that feels entirely obvious, that's been there all his life and is suddenly and disorientingly missing. 

"I know you don't need guards - or servants, maybe, with all this power - but if someone was here then someone would know you and you'd be... connected to everyone else, instead of being some sort of... terrifying ghost in the fabric of society."

"This is bad for the empire, and I don't think it's good for you either."  His voice softens near the end, and he looks half apologetic, but... what did he even come here for, if he wasn't going to say things like this?

"...well, I won't deny it gets a bit lonely, but I've always thought that if people don't want to be near me, I should quit throwing them off roofs first and see if that helps."

"Eventually, maybe, but how are they even supposed to know?  And - did you quit, or are you just thinking that you could?"

"I've been trying! I am much better these days than I used to be, at not losing my temper or at least not losing it quite that badly."

"Congratulations, then!"  This conversation is so bizarre, and at some point he'll stop and process that properly. 

"But - I think even if you were still regularly throwing people off buildings, it'd be better for people to know... why and how it happens.  It's not as if my father doesn't execute people who really get on his nerves, but this doesn't make everyone avoid him in terror, because it's not... everything they know about him?  Even if you're going to be terrifying, it's better to be clear about it then to have it all go by vague rumor.  ... I think.  I don't know, maybe you tried that two thousand years ago and my history teacher didn't want to talk about it."

"I do tell people when they ask, and there's usually a few people in the government who see enough of me to be less terrified, but, you know, sometimes when someone isn't terrified of me it's because he's an arrogant ass who thinks if he just figures out the right way to ask he can get me to rewrite the law however he pleases, and then I throw him off a roof and then being terrified of me starts to look like a better idea to everyone else. And I can hardly ask them not to be, you know? Because 'why did you throw that guy off a roof' 'he wouldn't stop being annoying and I lost my temper' just isn't a very reassuring thing to say! If people are frightened of me because I'm temperamental and impulsive and can rearrange mountains like a child playing in the sand and those things are a bad combination, then, well, I can force them to hang around me anyway, but I can't force them to be happy about it."

"I just... I don't think it works, to tell people when they ask.  So yes, I suppose I do think you should force people - well, pay them, surely there is some amount of money that'll get people to willingly exist in your presence."

"... It does sound depressing when I say it like that.  But it really is what everyone does, and it doesn't normally end up depressing, I don't think?"

"Well, and suppose I did start paying someone life-changing amounts of money to wander around my half of the palace and chat uncomfortably with me and try not to think too hard about what's happening to my slaves—what then? They tell all their friends that I haven't murdered them yet?"

"... Well, yes, basically.  And, you know, gossip about how occasionally you make funny comments about stupid cliffs, and what foods you like, and how lovely your half of the palace is, and-- make it so people know things about you other than 'absurdly powerful and unpredictably terrifying', even if most of them are stupid minor things.  The stupid minor things do actually add up to something that matters."

"...I don't know. I think people do hear some of the stupid minor things, you know? The clerks tell each other about the cookies in the waiting room, and I'm sure they gossip about my funny comments too, and... I'm still absurdly powerful and unpredictably terrifying. Maybe having someone around more often would help with that but, I don't know, I'd be uncomfortable trying to talk to someone who didn't want to be here and was only putting up with me for the life-changing amounts of money."

"...You know, everyone else in power has gotten over that discomfort somehow or other." 

That's really enough courting getting thrown off a roof, Imar. 

But also it's gotten to the point of just being funny.  "And if I tell my father I said that to you, he'll explode."

"Hah. Yeah, maybe that's my problem."

"But I don't think I want to get over it. It's—important, I think, to keep in mind that you can't actually pay people to like you, or force them to, and what you get if you try isn't the same as friendship."

"No, of course you're right - that's why I said, guards and servants and secretaries and that sort of thing even if you don't really need them.  People who aren't supposed to be trying to be your friends."

"But..."  Oh, now he's going to be embarrassed to say something, apparently.  "See, I should've asked if you wanted me to stick around before we got into the conversation about life-changing amounts of money, because now there's no way for it not to feel awkward."

He snickers.

"Yeah, that's the other thing about being me that makes it tough to have friends, most people don't know how to act around someone who could build them their own flying island if he felt like it."

"Yes, make fun of my embarrassment, that helps," he laughs.  It does help, really.

"But no, that part's fine, I just don't want you to think I'm doing this for-- flying islands, apparently."  He's boggling at the concept a little.  "What would I even do with a flying island?  I promise I didn't come here to bother you because I was hoping to get ridiculous amounts of magic out of it.  I really wouldn't expect that kind of thing to work!"

"It generally doesn't, and yet that doesn't stop people from trying. But no, you don't at all come across as the type."

"Oh good.  I suppose it's hard to blame them, really, but... augh."

"Is there a type I come across as?  Now I'm curious.  You must've met so many people."

"You're pretty unusual! I mean," he waves a hand vaguely, "you're a minor lord's son from the northeast, but that's not exactly a type, there's a lot of different ways to be a minor lord's son from the northeast. There's a lot of different ways to be most things."

"There is," he agrees with a smile.

"So, what is going on with the cookies?  I admit I just stared at them in confusion when I got there."