:I don't think we know for sure how it works and it'd not like we've been able to test if it happens to people from other worlds before: 

:Eugh. Okay. We probably have to risk it but if there's anything else you can tell me about avoiding it it might matter a lot:

:Um, even if you're going to be lifebonded to someone, you need to be old enough - I saw Treven lots of times when I was little and didn't lifebond - and you need to spend time with them. And maybe have a romantic relationship? But that part isn't as clear. After the first time we kissed we were a bit lifebonded, enough that I could tell, but then I went away for months and we didn't get any more lifebonded until after, when I saw him again. And...I might've been able to guess sooner if I'd been paying attention to it, just because he seemed - sort of inexplicably interesting: 

:Okay, so as long as the elementals don't kiss anyone inexplicably interesting, they might be fine?:

:I...think so. Just talking to someone for long enough to notice they're inexplicably interesting can't be enough to do much - oh, and Van's lifebonded, and his lifebonded spent months and months trying and failing to, er, seduce him, before either of them noticed the actual lifebond: 

:Okay, that makes it sound less concerning. At least for the elementals, I'm still pretty skeeved:

:Huh, why. Do you not want to fall in love?: 

:Not magically!:

:Huh: Jisa seems to find this odd, but doesn't press further. :Anyway I'd better let you get on with going and talking to elementals: 

:Yeah. I'll be back and make us lunch when I'm done:

Jisa relays the conversation back to Enara, who's already peeled off to look for non-dangerous meadows out of town, and then goes back to Maurabel's room with Wood and crawls under the bed and falls fast asleep. 

Maurabel's back before Jisa wakes up, with Penumbra along. She makes egg and vegetable sandwiches, quietly.

The presence of other minds in the room eventually wakes Jisa anyway. She rolls out from under the bed, sits up and stretches. "Hi, Penumbra. Maurabel, what did you need to talk to elementals about, anyway?" 

"Shadow elementals can do something called a shadow walk. They can go from any dark place to any other dark place."

"Huh! How does that work?" 

"They can see dark places, too - shadow scrying - humans with enough Shadow can do that too but it's hard, the colors are all fucked up, but only elementals have enough juice to walk there. They can bring people with them. Since only elementals can do it and it's really hard for a human to steer, one of the things I do to make money is take a Shadow, or Penumbra who is a Shadow hybrid, into town where there's a designated dark place, and have the elemental bring passengers where they're supposed to go. I can do this better than anyone else because the elementals do it on their own if I ask, everybody else has to learn a very difficult skill to manage."

"Do people know that you can do it that way because you aren't horrible to elementals and so they'll be friendly to you?" 

"They - kind of know that. People often get elementals to cooperate with them by promising rewards of some kind or threatening them. They think I'm good at that."

Jisa is making such a face. "You would think that someone would notice that actually being nice to people means they want to be nice to you too! It can't be such a mystery! I mean, people here have friends, right, other humans?" 

"Yeah. Not elementals, generally."

"But they've obviously people!" 

"Only obvious if you let them talk. Also - recently wild ones are weird. They talk, sure, but they don't care about the same range of things as a human. They get more humanlike with exposure."

"Oh, interesting. ...I wonder how much that'd be true of humans too, if there were any who lived the way elementals do. I guess maybe - schools and markets and going to the temple for festivals and getting married, things like that - don't make as much sense if you didn't grow up with them?" 

"Elementals don't grow up, is I think part of it, they start full-sized."

"Huh. I guess there's a lot of things about humans that I didn't even realize I was taking for granted, like - having families, even, that wouldn't make sense for elementals since they just appear."