"The reds certainly aren't hungry after Allocator Idiot's mess, it's the purples you should be worrying about, trying to decide whether to feed their toddlers today or keep them clean - I am not a totalitarian dictator, you cannot hold me personally responsible for every turn of every gear in the nation -"

"I know, I'm sorry, I know. We were going to distribute food but Savo thought that it might make things worse, we still will if on the whole your leadership thinks it's for the best. I don't think it's your fault, I just think it has to end."

"You said what?" Avalor says, turning to Savo who has been being unobtrusive in the corner.

"I -"

"After all this you're still prioritizing your idiot project - I should let Governor Riado execute you, you blithering, idealistic - your pet project failed! People are fainting off of overpasses and showing up in the hospital with vitamin deficiencies none of the doctors can recognize if they're under thirty! Give it up!" She presses her hands to her eyes, sighs, turns back to Maitimo. "Please ignore him. We would be delighted to accept some clean food."

"You should not let anybody execute anybody, to be clear. Where do we most conveniently leave the food."

"I can put you in touch with Logistics." Sigh.

"Thank you. Was there anything else?"

"So many things. Food first. I'll tell them to expect you." She's typing.

"To expect somebody, it might be faster to send another ship over."

"To expect one or more Elves."

He tells Elves to ask Yavanna for as much food as can conveniently be ferried.

Logistics has distribution points figured out where it will be publicly obvious that the food is from Elves and didn't pass through any dubious channels.

He directs people.

She glares at Savo a couple more times and eventually he scurries back to his own office.

"I will be very annoyed if anything happens to him."

"It was a figure of speech, I have been following through on pushing the stay of execution, although I can't hold that forever, they're running out of cells in the Tower."

"Oh, we were under the impression executions were pretty rare."

"They are, I'm stalling the interviews, people are usually not executed after those but never executed before them."

"And there's no mechanism to stall the sentencing after the interview?"

"Not an easy one. I am trying to conserve expenditure of political capital."

Sigh. "Understood. But that means lots of people are being imprisoned who might otherwise have been interviewed and let go?"

"Yes. I will have more leeway when you have ended the war."

"It is discomfiting to be in the position of explaining to you that I could end the war immediately with a flick of my finger but that this would entail compromising on other desiderata which should really also be taken into consideration especially considering that no one's presently being murdered in the war."

"You are the one in a hurry to have the things I can buy with that leeway."

"Another day or two."

"Then that can be how long they stay uninterviewed."