"You could tell me some you're thinking of and I can let you know if I don't like any of them?"

"If Khatijah'd been a boy I'd've called her Armiya. For another girl I was thinking of Henna?"

"Those seem good! Pretty and not too like any of the other names I need to keep track of."

"Is it hard - you don't have that many kids -"

"I don't but I worry it'll get hard eventually. My grandfather couldn't remember all our names."

"My grandma mixes me up with Ilisaba sometimes but only with her and we're pretty alike..."

"Well my grandfather had... more than a hundred grandchildren, right, all told."

"Yeah, that's a lot."

"And it might happen to me! Even if I don't take any more girls! If you each have, like, five, and then they each have four or five..."

"Which isn't even that many, I'm the oldest of ten and I'm not sure if they'll have another or not..."

"I figure some'll have more than five and some'll have less but yeah, it could easily get a lot higher."

"You could make them all wear nametags."

"Maybe I will! But it feels a bit sad."

"Yeah, it does. Maybe you'll hang out with all of them enough when they're a huge children's choir and you will be able to remember them all."

"Maybe so!" Kiss.

Kiss! "Of course if you also eventually have that many nieces and nephews it's absolutely hopeless."

"Presumably at some point Abadar will knock the pharaoh upside the head and say 'I gave you one job' - I guess he gave him several jobs, really -"

"He's got enough wives... is he like, okay?"

"He's not into women. Some people just aren't, you know? And most of them presumably just don't marry or get a couple kids off their wife and then stop and it's not notable but since he's pharaoh it is."

"Then it seems kind of weird to have so many. Like, he's supposed to but not just for no reason..."

"He likes talking with them. He's barely allowed to talk with people who aren't his, right, and he likes having lots of people around to talk to."

"Oh, I guess that makes sense then. I hope they don't mind."

"I think he tries to filter for that."

"But he can barely talk to them, right -"

"Yes but he's very good at reading people."