" - hey, wait, I did have something else to say about that! You can't just say that being an apprentice is awful and nobody should do it and not address the fact that I have apprentices who live in our house! You have to tell me whether you think I'm doing something wrong!"

He looks utterly baffled.

"....But that's not the same thing at all!"

She looks very unimpressed.

"Elie. Telepathic though I might be, I do not automatically know what the bounds of your objections to apprenticeships are. As a person with apprentices, there is a certain central instance that I think of when discussing it. Now, thinking on it, I suppose you would probably not fail to inform me if you thought that I was doing something horrible, but I would still sort of like to make sure."

"...but we were talking about masons and joiners and things! You don't have apprentices the way anyone else does. You don't do anything the way anyone else does. It's not as if there's a guild of" – helpless gesturing –

"Anyway, it isn't the same."

" - I wasn't just talking about masons and joiners, but I admit that I'm not sure whether that was in any way made obvious."

"Well. I don't think you're doing anything horrible. If I had my own apprentices I might not place so many demands on their time, but it's nothing you don't ask of yourself, I don't object to it. You don't treat them like servants, you don't set them to all the most menial work, you wouldn't punish them if they fail to treat you with deference – and if they wanted to leave, you'd let them. 

I suppose most master craftsmen aren't worse than most parents – but I wouldn't leave Rahim with most parents, either." 

"Well, I wouldn't leave him with most master craftsmen. - anyway, thank you."

"And I certainly shouldn't like him to be involved with any guilds."

"Sure. I am at least Abadaran enough to feel that nobody should be prevented from doing honest labor that people will pay them to do."

"Or restricted to methods that were outdated three hundred years ago."

"That seems like a very silly thing to enforce even if you're going to have guilds, I thought they were supposed to enrich their members at the expense of other people. - anyway, I expect that most people will be no good for our son and that we therefore should not entrust him to most people. But I don't think I am, actually, the only person who uses apprentices the way I use them, and now that I say this it's very obvious that I was talking partly about myself and you were talking partly about members of the Galtan masons' guild, but - well, sorry for that."

"Anyway, I think we'll be fine." 

"We don't have a Galtan mason's guild. We abolished them. Even Cyprian wouldn't bring them back.

...but, yes, I'm not worried about Rahim."

" - well, I suppose if you were partly talking about the Chelish mason's guild, that's really even less mysterious. - which is not to say that I don't think the issues you raised apply to apprenticeships in lots of countries and lots of contexts, or that I think you're wrong to be worry about it, because I don't, I'm just feeling mildly silly now."

"Is that so? Well, I think we are both very silly and shall probably raise a large number of very silly children, however we do choose to educate them."