There's lots of them. And lots of people. And everyone knows if we escape they're supposed to send us back.

Then maybe stealing all the prisoners from your world and bringing them here is the best way to do it.

That would be good.

I'll talk with the Queen and the Valar. I don't know how easily it can be done. Is there a way we can make it less scary for them when they arrive?

I don't know.

I escaped, I knew I was out because I did it myself, they didn't let me. Sometimes they move people from one place to another and they don't always tell us first. Moving everybody at once would be strange though.

Some people like the programs and might be scared without one.

Some people have friends and will be upset if they're separated. Sometimes they do that on purpose.

Some people will be on drugs and you'll need to know which ones. Some of the drugs are dangerous. Some of them are hard to stop. Some of them are both. Some people need the drugs, or think they do.

Some people will still remember their families and might want to see them.

Anything painful that seems like it's happening on purpose will be scary. Anything new or different. Anything nice that might be taken away. Anything nice that might be used as a reward.

Seeing bad things happen to other people. We're not supposed to care about that, and it's very hard.

If there's a way of doing food so it's just there and nobody can say no or take it away or control it, that would help a lot.

The food shouldn't be a problem at all. We can set something more like that up for you, too, let me think how. Some of the other things sound challenging, but we can talk about how to manage them. 

Okay.

There are other people who got out, too, they can help you figure it out. I can find them if I can get online.

We don't have the inventions described in your book.

That's fiction. We don't have spaceships or robots like that yet.

The internet is real but I guess I'd have to go back to use it.

I think so. Or teach us how to build it.

I don't know how.

There might be instructions online, there are instructions for lots of things.

That would require finding a way to get in touch with your world somehow. Do you want to talk to the Valar about doing that?

What would I have to do?

I think they'd have to look at you to figure out where you came from and if they could make a reliable way to travel there. I can ask them if they can do it without getting near you.

Okay.

I will probably be all right if they come here if I don't need to talk to them or anything.

I will definitely tell them that you won't want to talk. They should be okay with that; they didn't at first talk themselves, they sort of learned how because we did it.

Okay.

I asked about ways of doing food that would be less stressful for you. We could have lots of food out somewhere and you could take as much as you wanted back, would that work?

The nice thing about passing notes twice a day is that she has plenty of time to calm back down in between.

Yes. Thank you.

The next note contains a map. The place where lots of food will be put and people told to leave her alone is marked.

...she didn't think this through as thoroughly as she could have; if she empties her pack so she can bring as much stuff as possible back, then she has to leave all her other things here where they can be taken.

Well, there's some things that that's an acceptable risk for. Clothes, yes, full sketchpad and pencils, books she's already read. The tablet she keeps and wraps in the spare outfit she's not risking; the remains of the food supply from home she can't quite bring herself to leave. After some thought she leaves the hot water bottle and thin blanket; she might regret that eventually, but it's definitely not winter here, somehow.

She rearranges the things she's keeping to give her the most space in the pack's main section, makes a perfunctory attempt at hiding everything else, and follows the map.

As promised, there is lots and lots of food, packaged to be easy to carry.

She packs up as much as she can carry and brings it back to her hiding place.

Nothing has been touched.

Oh, good. She unpacks the food and packs it all up and hides it away anyway.