"I hadn't thought about it! Probably still the books, but without the personalized designs and the 'Only Isabella may open this' magic. I have no idea what would replace the portal-bag."

"Well, I'm terribly charmed by the portal bag, so I'm glad we don't live in that universe."

"Me too! I would have been stuck on another plane and I'd have never met you. Also, no portal capitalism would be terrible."

"Yes. Soonish the port will be completed and I can handle more traffic and cut the price and blogs will stop shouting at me."

"People who feel very strongly that everything ought to be affordable to all sectors of the population. At all stages of its development. Regardless of traffic capacity. Either that or they want me to allocate tickets by lottery."

"Uh huh. Do they realize that would shock the entire economy to instantly change methods of transportation like that? It's also a slow settling, along with traffic capacity management."

"These are not econ majors."

"Apparently not. But you'd think they'd have some sense."

"Why would I expect that? We haven't converted them to our religion yet."

He snorts with laughter. "I'll have to write some sermons. Lots of sermons. With good logical arguments and a time for openly discussed questions at the end. That'll convince them."

"We can only hope. Well, maybe they'll like me after I start price-chopping."

"But they're not part of the religion of sense, Isabella. They will probably be upset about the crowds."

"I hired a very expensive person to optimize the design for easy traffic flow!"

"How very sensible of you!"

"Yes! Anyway eventually it'll be cheap and they'll find something else to complain about."

"Probably about the bunch of refugees from another plane. That'll probably be it."

"How dare I put my refugees on another planet instead of fighting to get them citizenship in an existing country? Alternatively, how dare I invite immigration into a plane that rightly belongs to Earthlings, every inch."

"That does just about sum it up, though I can understand if they're worried because - bunch of conquerors that can travel through planes. Though I hope to convince them otherwise. With my charm, good looks, and my ability to throw lots of money at the problem until it goes away."

"I mean, someone could already triangulate the plane by looking for you, or Zeviana, the colonists won't much worsen matters."

Adarin winces. "Yeah, that. That too. Annoying how it works like that. Don't tell anyone that, there will be people who might want to throw us back to New Kystle."

"I can ask Mom to do another layer of wards around the house over mine, and Zeviana I suppose spends a lot of time on the clan grounds. Unless they look for you a lot they might miss you, since witch wards work."

"... You know I didn't even think about how the wards would help? Wow, that's fantastic," he laughs. "Even if they look they might not find me."

"I mean, they could still get lucky when you leave warded areas, but it will certainly make it less rewarding."

"Yeah. It's still nice to have some safety, it kind of - wears after a while. That they could just come after me and drag me back to my own personal, customized version of hell."