"They've only been living in New Kystle for a few years. I wonder if it makes sense to just import the lot of them - or the more tolerable ones, anyway - to some appropriate refugee site on Earth. Picking a place would take a while, but... it's not that big a population."

"That's possible. But then mages would team up and react badly, I predict."

"What would they do if the nonmage population was just - escorted off the premises? What do they want with them?"

"Ignore it until it becomes a problem for them, such as not having food on the table. The nonmage population does farming and general manual labor."

"Well, if they'd ignore it to start that would give us a while to enact stage one. And if there was a system for them to import food for magic trinkets or whatever?"

Adarin smiles a little, affectionately. "Hmmm, maybe. But you saw those people, do you think you could convince them to work and make things when right now they're being fed for basically free?"

"My question is what alternative would they have? It's just you and your sister who can make portals proper, right? If they came in one at a time, low on mana from the transport, intending grand larceny - they'd be outnumbered by witch clans and high tech mortals. And the alethiometer works here, too, we could spot-check periodically for incursions."

"They can make portals if they team up," he informs her. "But... Hmmm, yeah. Should I - I dunno, speak to various witch clans and high tech mortals and say, 'So I'm nice, but lots of my people aren't, please be aware of them and squash them if they try anything?'"

"Yes, quite possibly. Post-portal-capitalism, ideally, so no one wants you assassinated or pissed off."

He snickers, a little. "Yeah. I would also like large amounts of money to throw around in this plane, because I can do fun things with it."

"Believe me, if you can crank out enough portals to replace even a single percent of airline traffic, you're golden, and I think you can top that."

"If they're all inside one plane? Oh yes. But if that avenue of magical capitalism dries up, I have other options. Portal-bags, the mirrors, illusions, translation spells, fancy lights, magic doors for security... I have lots of options."

"I don't think any of those are as lucrative as portals. They're great, but they're sort of - consumer gadgets, and keeping up with the volume you'd need for fuck-you money would be really hard even if you weren't mana-limited at all. Portals are fantastic for volume and offer a huge leg up from plane traffic."

"Oh, I agree, but they're alternative options and I don't like putting all of my eggs in one basket."

"Reasonable of you."

"I try. Keeps me on the Inquisitor of Sense's good side." Wink.

"You are sooooo on my good side."

He giggles. "Good!"

"Hey, is this a meeting-each-other's-families kind of relationship or just a sex and world domination thing?"

"...Goddesses all, you poor thing, I was angling for the first thing, I just didn't want to be all pressure-y. I was just thinking I haven't seen my parents in a while."

Happy grin, little gentle kiss. "That's adorable, and I'm happy to meet any of your family members at any time you like. You can meet my sister, eventually, when a trip to New Kystle seems like a good idea."

"You're no longer expecting to remain on Earth forever?"

"I am expecting to remain on Earth for most of the time because it's better here, with occasional visits to New Kystle to do important things," he informs her, brightly. "But honestly, screw politics. I'm officially sick of it after my four year term of suffering, they can get over themselves and throw their own parties."

"Aww." Snuggle.