"Yes, but I'm assuming you'll tell me if you want me to know."

"That's why I asked if you wanted to know a secret. It's Beka."

"I am very glad to know you, Beka."

"You could be gladder."

"I don't think I've done a very good job of explaining -"

"Yeah I'm still kinda confused."

"So - say a boy likes a girl. Maybe the rule we actually want to have is 'they can do things that they're both agreed to and that make them both happy', but we're talking about the rules society enforces, here, not about individual virtue, and 'everyone is obliged to check and make sure relationships meet those standards' is absurd and invasive, so instead we make rules that don't require nosy external investigation, and we say that if people follow the rules they get the benefit of the doubt. And the rules are that you shouldn't pursue someone who's in no position to refuse you, and you shouldn't pursue someone who is in a state of dependence on you, and you shouldn't pursue someone who for any number of complicated reasons might not be good at saying 'yes' when and only when it makes them happy, like because they're very young or because they've been taught never to say no or because they are not sane or because they're presently intoxicated. So, if you break those rules, you're doing two things. First, you're telling everybody that you don't mind being mistaken for someone who'd do something very evil, and you don't mind imposing on them the costs of trying to figure out whether the situation is okay and what to do about it if it's not - costs that we just agreed would be too high to be sustainable if lots of people did this. And second, you're weakening the rules, and people who might want to be careless with the wellbeing of others will use the weaker rules to do that. 

Elves do this thing where - if there's a tradeoff to be made of individual fun and excitement against - risk of permanent kinds of harm, or costs to social trust, we always pick and enforce rules that get us the second thing. Even if it's lots of excitement for just a small price in social trust. And this wouldn't be a small price, not at all."

"...shit, I'm never gonna get laid again."

"You can pick someone who doesn't have your life in their hands!"

"The taught to not say no thing is totally me. Although for whatever it's worth the saying pretty please is all my own idea."

"That would make a difference, yes."

"Pretty please?"

"There are still very much the other two rules."

"Oh no I have got Elfier all of a sudden and you must release me at once and among the places I wish to be free to go is wherever you put your bed?"

"I didn't explain the thing so you could try to rules-lawyer it!"

Giggle. "Can't that be a delightful side effect?"

"If Nelyo gets better and can take back over and inexplicably doesn't forbid me from it then we could talk. But he'll definitely forbid it."

"No fair, he owes me a favor."

"We are all very much in your debt."

"So he shouldn't forbid me from stuff!"

"You can take that up with him once he's better."

"Count on it!" she chirps.

He shakes his head and mostly represses a smile.

"- hee!"

"I think maybe orcs like sex more than Elves, too."