"Sure thing," Cam agrees.

Mrindeh follows, nervously bouncing along.

Then Samos can show her the way, out of the nice neighborhood around the palace and through the worst parts of the city.

And meanwhile Vin can finish any more circles Cam gives them.

They come on an occasional basis as he tracks down fairies or angels listed on Davidson's for courier work. Some of them don't get answered right away.

In that case Krull will eventually leave and Ashelin will skim some old laws and draft edits while they wait. At one point she asks what happens if you roll a circle back up after finishing it and before it gets answered.

"Then it won't get answered while it's rolled up but is still live if you lay it back out."

"Good to know."

"Does the baby already have a name?" Mrindeh asks. "Is it a boy or a girl?"

"A boy, and we have unreliable information that his name might be Storm. I suppose if we keep calling him that long enough it'll be true whether it was to begin with or not."

"Storm," sighs Mrindeh. "That's a nice name."

"I prefer traditional names like Mar and Lexa, myself, but I suppose it's convenient if you have different taste."

"I don't know much about names in this language yet."

Samos does and can go on about it at length. His name is from a fad several decades ago for names like Samos, Damas, and Kerkis, but almost no one under thirty has a name like that and the babies these days get names like Storm and Rayn that used to be popular in Kras City ("and why anyone wants to imitate them is anyone's guess").

"Is something wrong with Kras City?"

"There's something wrong with every city these days, but at least Haven is ours. And Kras doesn't even try to respect history or minimize audience casualties at sporting events."

"Oh dear. Is that from - sports riots, or from the sport itself?"

"Well, both, but I meant the second one. Racing is bloody here too but it stays in the stadium."

"Racing what?"

"In Kras they drive 'cars' - like zoomers, but with wheels."

"Oh, people back home have those."

"I suppose it's probably less dangerous if all your pedestrians are indestructible."

"I think humans use them too? But less recently."

"I'll never understand why anyone would put cars and human pedestrians on the same streets."

They pass a propaganda station playing a recording of Ashelin announcing that leaving the city is no longer a capital offense.

"- it used to be a capital offense -"

"We're very happy about the recent regime change. - Just through this door and down some stairs."

"Who's taking care of Storm right now?"