"In what languages can they make animals follow commands? What's the minimum thing that makes it possible to make a golem or automaton? What counts as an animal and do the animals have a choice about it?"

"The animals follow commands language-independently and I haven't the foggiest how that works but could probably borrow one if you want to try it. I can look up the minimum viable automaton..." He does this; apparently you can make an automaton disk spin with a word on the disk and one on the surface it's spinning over that the axis is stuck in. "The animal has to be able to hear and not a person, some animals are too smart for it to work but the ones that aren't as I understand it don't have options besides doing what they're told - by whoever enchanted them and whoever they authorize, though, not random people."

"Have they tested that with monkeys, ravens, humans with partial anencephaly, robots - are there any plants or fungi that count as able to hear - do they actually have to be able to hear or just perceive the commands, does it not work with sign language - what if they can only hear part of a command - can you tell without seeing them obey a specific command whether they've been enchanted?"

"- it sounds like you might want to talk to a specialist in servantmaking magic? I don't know the answers to those or even where to find them online off the top of my head."

"I might. Maybe after we finish up with - hm, what was your goal in bringing up whether people make nuisances of themself when they're rich and have video games?"

"We were talking about prospects for widespread amnesty for pre-contact crime in Linver?"

"You talk like a diplomat. I've said this several times and it hasn't been a compliment any of them. I am not a judge. I do not work for the government. I do not sentence people to death. No one in my entire organization does that. If you want me as someone who is not a government employee but knows more than you about Linver to tell you what the government will do, I can tell you there are no prospects of any such amnesty. What is it about the idea that makes it appealing to you?"

"- I mean, if you don't want to talk to me, that's fine and I can drop you off at home, in fact my teammates are working on finding people to talk to in parallel and maybe one of them has turned up someone more suitable. But we like amnesty as of around the time of contact because it reflects changes in circumstances and commensurate changes in lifestyles and laws and the salience of many crimes that often come with that contact."

"There isn't - okay, to be completely honest, there are probably a handful of better options, but they're not going to be qualitatively different, just people who do what I do and remember slightly more recidivism statistics off the tops of their heads. You are certainly free to talk to the government if you want to. But I don't punish crimes, I prevent problems. There isn't anything I could possibly do that would constitute granting amnesty. I am a correct person to talk to about the reasons to expect people to cause fewer problems in the future. But it's not clear to me that that's even the fastest route to get you what you want, because you're probably picturing someone with some amount of power insisting that some people have to stay somewhere until they've suffered enough, like a national government, which you are not dealing with because it's - honestly, it'd be funny to get to spy on you trying to get anywhere with them - I'm just wondering if there's something you're waiting on before you stop by Blueberry Hill and let people know they can move in with you."

"Well, you did indicate people object to emigration. We'll be happy to take whoever currently lives in - Blueberry Hill - if that isn't going to cause a diplomatic incident but we'd really rather not have any of those."

"Anyone there is too dangerous or untrustworthy to live anywhere else and mostly they're welcome to leave if you'll take them but what exactly are your concerns about diplomatic incidents?"

"Ultimately we'd like Linver to join Vanda Nossëo or at least feel friendly to it."

"I doubt it will do the former. The latter might happen, insofar as a state can feel friendly, which arguably isn't possible at all."

"There can be - official stances, general tenor of public opinion, interest in various trade and tourism and so on, I don't mean I expect the state itself to manifest emotions."

"I expect we can make trade and tourism work. I can put money on that later when Mal and Natsuko are done. I expect you to have more problems if you piss off the Aurora or similar, and we're less concerned with keeping criminals around. There are a few things people can do so bad we'd want them marked before they go wander around nice neighborhoods full of people who don't deserve to not even know they have oathbreakers on their street. But people aren't kept waiting for that kind of thing."

"If you have exile as a sentence then even if you join Vanda Nossëo you don't have to let people in, just out, if that helps."

"So from my perspective I have told you four times in different ways that you can have what I understand you to want here, which is the safety of people we have historically not been able to live with peacefully, and every time you've responded by trying to diplomatically address an objection I don't have. I can offer them better odds soon, when I've figured out more precisely how much I trust you and how your statistics will relate to ours and what your statistics are, and probably I'll talk to someone with a similar job to mine in Vanda Nossëo, and that won't take a spectacularly long time but it won't be instant, and then they'll need to know they have options, which won't necessarily matter to them if they're broke and no one wants to lend to them, and then those that can pay can do that as fast as we can see them which is not infinitely fast. The homicide rate in the area between Blueberry Hill and Southshore averages more than one per day. The government is not going to agree to join Vanda Nossëo even if you could play nice with them, which you can't, you've already broken their laws, and the Aurora and similar organizations won't object to the people in that area, specifically, disappearing. Also, whether you actually do feel safe letting them move into your neighborhood is an input into what it'll cost them to come back eventually. Do you want to keep watching this robot factory or is there something else you'd like to be doing now."

"We're here in the robot factory for you, I'm happy to take you anywhere you like. I understand that you don't in your own person have all the objections I'm imagining, I'm trying to - use you as a proxy for mapping out possible diplomatic pathways. Can you - elaborate more on what the relevance of the odds you're offering and the finances of those you're offering them to is, if we can already make off with any willing emigrants in that area without upsetting the Aurora and cannot possibly make nice with the government?"

"Well, the difficulty and delay involved in their potential re-entry into broader society in Linver means they might otherwise spend months in the area with the highest murder rate in - I think it might be the entire world but definitely around Strell. Or that they might not successfully spend months there. I don't in my own person have all the objections you're imagining, but that's - uh - if you tell me that there's no problem with taking something from Vanda Nossëo, and you've misjudged, or have a disagreement with someone else who works for them, who gets in trouble for that?"

"Taking something from us? Taking what? I have a supervisor, if, say, Natsuko and I disagreed on how to interpret a policy or something, but I'm not sure what you're thinking."

"So, part of my job is knowing what behavior the Aurora objects to. If I in my professional capacity acting freely and without being subject to deception represent to you that you can start a business in our territory, or facilitate emigration, or change the Aurora's carpets out for handmade rugs with cartoon elephants, what do you think happens to you if you do that and then Mal says, 'hey, wait, Verret, actually you missed the meeting where we all agreed we hate elephant rugs'?"

"To me? Nothing - well, I guess I might streamline the nothing somewhat by telling my supe under lie-detection that you told me this but basically nothing."

"Do you think that's just because you think they wouldn't give you up if the Aurora wanted to see you bleed?"

"I... keep having the impression that when you talk you have pretty specific ranges of scenarios in mind that have not been communicated to me and this is making it hard for me to follow what information you're trying to extract. If I made an innocent mistake and this affected my personal or Vanda Nossëo's reception with the Aurora then, yeah, no, Vanda Nossëo would not hand me over for ritual bleeding or a beatdown or whatever it is you're alluding to. Though they might let you have Cassiel if she volunteered, come to think? If this is just an elaborate way of saying Cassiel needs to handle all the rug-replacements you're about to request then I'm... still pretty confused but at least in a more specific way."

"...Okay, I meant the opposite of that, but I also wanted to check if you had a specific expectation for what might happen. The reason I don't have a specific scenario in mind for what the Aurora might do to you is that they would absolutely not do anything to you - that's not true, they would try to communicate to you, in words, that I was wrong to say whatever I said. It's, uh, I have been assuming and putting a lot of trust in the idea that if you represent to me that Vanda Nossëo is okay with some behavior, I won't get in any trouble for it, and if that's not true then I want to go home right now."