"Thank you."

They have so many rules about how to let other random people enforce their rules! It's weird! They're not even saying "Kyeo, it's illegal for you to not report it if he tries to rape her", they just want people in the room and aren't assigning them any tasks! It's bizarre, is what it is. He doesn't say this.

Carissa looks different when they get back to the room; she has changed her posture slightly and is looking - younger, somehow, and less defiant. "Thank you for coming," she says, quietly.

"Of course. You wanted to talk about - whether we could arrange to have you married, instead of remaining in Lastwall's custody?"

"They're very kind here and I'm learning a lot but I am worried that it's too much of an imposition for them to have me indefinitely, and - that this whole thing with Kyeo's world might provoke some strife somewhere and then they'll need their magic handcuffs..."

"We would try, if that happened, to figure something out other than executing or petrifying you," says Isavel. "But I do think it's probably a good idea to think about what that might look like in advance."

Nod. "Thank you. I know it's expensive to hold a wizard but I was thinking I can make magic items and someone could arrange something so that I could earn my keep."

"It's not impossible but it requires - pretty intensive supervision from someone who is themself an experienced wizard, to know whether you're studying magic that'd let you escape, and whether you're burning materials by accident at a suspicious rate, and whether you're siphoning any off for other projects and saying you got into an accident -"

" - you could just kill me if I ever made a mistake that burned materials. I don't make mistakes."

"- you are pretty new at being a wizard! You're a very impressive one but I bet there are all kinds of mistakes you haven't made yet and will eventually, and sometimes people just get unlucky! Anyway, even in Osirion, intensive supervision from a wizard who we'd trust with a secret like this and who can also - make sure you get to learn things and not just make the same artifact every day for the rest of your life -"

"I wouldn't mind that, sir."

" - you wouldn't mind doing the same item every day for the next fifty years?"

"I find it very relaxing to make items I already know how to make. It's like how some people find knitting relaxing when they know the pattern."

" - okay. Anyway, I am not sure that this is a service you can buy, because - we couldn't have lots of handoffs, we'd need the wizard to commit for the long run and be willing to work with the government to ensure it was still working, and there'd be up-front materials costs that existing loan programs aren't a good fit for. And so if you were Osirian I think what a court would do is find you a wizard husband who was willing to do all those things. There wouldn't be a lot of selection but I do think there'd be a way to make it work."

"What would you do if I were a man?"

"...probably turn you into a statue. I'd - ask around, first, obviously, maybe someone would think of a solution I'm not thinking of."

This is in some obscure way comforting even though it's bad news.

"What's wrong with Ibyabek?"

"I only have Kyeo's account and the things the paladins noticed seemed odd, but I think they tried to abolish money while not really understanding all the things money does, and then they tried to replace all the things that they understood money to do with other, costlier, systems, and as a result even though they have fabulous manufacturing techniques the likes of which we haven't dreamed of, people actually have a harder time having nice lives than they do even in Golarion which is much poorer."

"I was thinking Sarham could probably explain it," says Kyeo, "only I don't know how to talk to him - or anyone - without them just thinking they've gone crazy."

"We would be involving more people but we could get a Gate... what did Sarham do that made you think he could explain it?"

"I think he wanted to. Maybe he wouldn't be any good at it either, but I think he wanted to, and he's from the right galaxy, he's been to Ibyabek and to - richer - planets."

He nods. "I think that would probably help a lot with explaining it, because Golarion people are missing so many levels of what is going on ...do people on Ibyabek know that on other planets people have more to eat and don't work nearly as much?"

"I have - heard things that might have taken that information as an influence."

Nod. 

"I thought it might be - that money is how merchants know that they're making mistakes. But Kyeo says that in the future it's not very hard being a merchant, you can just call the other cities, and your ships aren't lost at sea."