"Sea air disagrees with you? Makes me want cavefish stirfry, personally.

You okay?"

"It would be pretty upsetting if Osirion's orchestrating all this for whoknowswhat reason and we're told to lay off and go home."

"It'd... complicate your Taldor charges thing? It'd be sort of generally frustrating? It would cast aspersions on the purity of the Osirian project?"

"I guess it'd do those things. Mostly -" Shrug. "Something dumber than that. I'd - I'd sort of feel like I ought to go 'well, fuck Osirion, then," and go warn whoever I should warn. And I wouldn't do it."

"Why not?

- you can, like, ignore the questions if they're too close to whatever your deal is, I guess, just because I dump tragic backstory on anyone I can hold a pleasant conversation with doesn't -"

"What answer do you figure Fazil would give you?"

"Answer to what?"

"Why we should ignore the mess and go home, if it turns out Osirion's making it."

"Uh, something something if their fancy hats haven't gone up in flames they're still lawful and his job is to do what they say so the whole machinery doesn't gum up under the logistical weight and information handling disaster of debating strategy with every random cleric?"

"I guess."

"But also - he thinks it's a just system, right? Full of people like him, right to the top, that no one would ever make a decision just not caring whether Cheliax picks off a few border towns as a result, that whatever dreadful things they do they did them diligently, with all Abadar's knowledge and whatever the hell the human element is supposed to contribute - he thinks that the people who are in charge are better than people in charge ever are -"

"Abadar's not straight-up possessing the dude but I dunno, if someone were going around advertising themselves as my avatar I might get pretty strict with 'em about minding their border towns... you think he's wrong though?"

"No. I don't. I think he's right. I just -"

Shrug. "I did say it was stupid."

"I will accept a funny story in lieu of the stupid thing if you don't wanna tell me the stupid thing, I'm not trying to pry you open like a clam here."

"I hate the way Osirion works, and I do not like that it can reach us here and I'm scared it will want to put us to some use or another and if it does I will - obey it - because I think Fazil's right, and I'm really mad about that, and I wish I lived in some other country with some stupid corrupt government it was entirely reasonable to defy as far as you could get away with it. Feels much more natural."

"It's overrated.

Why d'you think he's right?"

"The pharaoh's my brother," he says, in Elven instead of Taldane.

"Ha. I promise not to call you on it if you reuse that one for a more populated audience."

"I don't think he knows I'm here. Guess he might. For a while I was very sure they'd drag me back if they found me but maybe they wouldn't bother now."

"- wait, you're serious?"

"Please don't tell them. They'd - we couldn't be friends, not really -"

"I - okay, I won't. Wow."

"I don't know exactly what formal limitations that's supposed to have you under but I'm getting the sense it's too many."

"We're not allowed out of the Dome without security and an important purpose. 's very nice there, of course. Not much to do except study in case the damned thing ever falls on you and make heirs to pass it off on instead. Lots of slaves, when I was growing up, taking care of everything for you. I guess now they're technically some other thing."