"...children safer from men hurt them in their own home than if foster child. Many people hurt foster child who wouldn't hurt child in own home, because foster child - not allowed to carry weapon, not allowed to fight back, courts no believe -"

Wow that's a whole thorny mess. "It's - also illegal to carry weapons if you're not a foster kid," Jeremy says weakly. "That's not a foster kid law, that's just - the law, though I guess Evelyn is more hardcore about enforcing it than some of my friends' parents. And - uh, I mean, I think sometimes foster parents aren't great, but it's fairly hard to get away with actually abusing foster kids, Mom has to write logs on everything and the social workers will visit and check the house and make sure there's food and the kids have their own rooms and toys and stuff, and if they're good ones they'll talk to the kids alone and make sure they know they could say something if they weren't being treated well. And, uh, a...lot of people hurt children in their own home. Mom worries that they still don't do enough to keep families together, sometimes kids end up in foster care just 'cause the parents are poor and stuff, and - kids love their parents even if their parents are walking disasters - but I think Lily is safer here than she was at home. And you can tell she's happier and less scared, she's doing way better at school and stuff." 

"When I tell government Martin, they destroy lives of everyone I know. But I supposed to think if I tell government about someone important who owns land, they will do something helpful? No! I never ever tell government anything ever again no matter what you do to me! And I think other foster childs will decide same thing for same reason!"

This conversation is giving Jeremy such weird deja vu. It's not even close to the first time one of Mom's foster kids has angrily yelled things at him with a similar sentiment, and - it simultaneously feels like Iomedae's reaction is much less - grounded in how anything works - and also somehow far more valid. Jeremy is pretty sure that she's...confused on a fundamental level about something here, still...and also wow he is not even slightly going to take the position that ICE isn't horribly evil. 

...He sits down on one of Mom's deck chairs, because this conversation doesn't need any more standing-and-yelling energy. 

"The government isn't just one thing," he says, quietly and sort of tiredly. "The parts of it you've seen are made of - people who're really trying their best, I know Mom is, and at least some of the social workers, some are pretty useless and occasionally one of them makes a really bad call and it arguably does destroy a kid's life, at least from their own point of view. And a lot of police are basically decent people but you definitely get the sense that some of them just like having guns and telling people what to do. And the immigration police people, ICE, are - I don't even know what the point of it is, the migrants aren't hurting anyone. I think Mom - sees all of it with rose-tinted glasses, because she's trying very hard to make things better instead of worse. I - think it's complicated, and I think a lot of kids in foster care are glad they told someone, but - man, I wouldn't buy that if I were in your shoes right now." 

Shrug. "I'm sorry it went like that, is all. And that Mom probably isn't great at - getting it." 

“She say sorry to me too. I don’t know why. She owe me nothing. We are strangers.”

"- I mean, for one thing, Mom would say sorry to a random stranger at the grocery store if they had bumped into her. She's practically Canadian about it. But also..." Shrug. "It's not like it costs anything to say, wow that sucks and I wish it hadn't happened to your friends." 

"I wish it hadn't happened. I maybe wish I was dead instead of finding them, so they would still be free."

"That would also really suck! You're neat and you're going to change the world someday. Maybe you can get elected to the government and finally get them to shut down ICE, you could be amazing at persuasive speeches with some more practice." 

"The other people whose lives I destroy, they also would have had futures ahead of them."

"I mean, they still do? It really sucks, but they're not dead. ...Maybe we could start a petition or something, I don't know if it's work but I bet you could convince so many people to sign a letter to our Congressperson saying how it's appalling and inhumane to deport them." 

"Congressman is - person who in charge this area, big area? He care about petition from foster child?"

"Yeah. And not if it was only from you, but - man, honestly it could make a great inspirational story, it's the sort of thing that goes viral and gets shared all over social media. I think the trick with petitions is to find well-known people who'll put their name on it too once you talk to them, and I can think of at least three profs at college who wouldn't even be hard to convince. And then if we can get, like, five thousand people to sign it, the Congressperson will be like, wow, that's five thousand people who are mad about this, if I ignore it they might not vote for me at re-election time." 

"I didn't know most of those words and I planning to not do things until I know more about world but if you think it would help them then I - really really want to."

"I...don't think it would make anything worse, and - I think it's the best way to try to change things like that. It doesn't work so well in America to go fight problems with a sword, then you're the bad guy, but - if you can tell a story that makes people think, wow, what if I'm being the bad guy, sometimes they...do a different thing instead. I can talk to my polysci prof about it? He'd be able to say whether he thinks it might work, and how to go about it so it won't cause any worse problems." 

"Thank you, Jeremy. God bless you. I - would be very grateful, if you ask a expert how petition the congressman to free them."

"You're welcome." Hopefully Mom doesn't get all snippy about this. Jeremy thinks it's a great idea. Will it work for these specific migrants, well, probably not, but it's the sort of thing that might actually make ICE cool down about raids in the area for a while, if they're getting heat about it. Nobody likes bad publicity. 

He still wants to give Iomedae a hug and is still very sure this will make her freak out, so he doesn't offer or show any sign of it. 

(...He is perhaps going to actually have to put some work into not developing a crush on Iomedae. It would be so horrifyingly inappropriate. It's just impossible not to admire her, and then there's a very easy next step from there... Not that he would ever do anything, and you get to be pretty good at acting when you've grown up around a constant stream of foster kids, but still.) 

It takes unusual moral character to not take liberties with your mother's slaves, at Jeremy's age, but Jeremy seems to possess unusual moral character and also she will only ever be alone with him outside where worst case she thinks she can run away. (She's not allowed to run away, but she thinks Aroden would say it is one of the cases where you can break the law, like how if you live under Tar-Baphon you can break the law.)

She will head back inside.

Lily has received a very redacted explanation from Evelyn and looks subdued but isn't sobbing or anything. She wants to give Iomedae a hug. "So'y y'fends n'tubble wda pleece." 

*"Sorry your friends are in trouble with the police." 

Iomedae will hug her and not say anything because the first five things she thinks of are all either untrue or things Evelyn doesn't want Lily to know.

Lily is okay with no talking about it. She doesn't know what to say either, and Mummy said that Iomedae might not feel like talking because sometimes people don't when they're sad. She will just hughughug and then quietly ask Iomedae if she wants to color with her or be by herself.

They're clearly not making it to the science museum this afternoon. Iomedae isn't just devastated and guilty and angry with the government, she's scared - she's not showing it much, but you get to have a very good radar for when kids are scared, after enough years of doing this - and the last thing she needs is to be hauled out to a public place where she'll spend the entire time in constant distress about not having her fucking sword on her in case someone tries to rape one of them.

They can have a quiet afternoon at home instead, and Evelyn will write a long upset angry email to Diel and then delete it without sending it and write a short polite email that sort of elides the part where she drove Iomedae out to New Washoe to look for her migrant camp, and perhaps hints instead that they might have just heard a rumor about ICE raids and Iomedae is very worried about her friends. This is a lot more deception than she usually uses with social workers, even the ones she doesn't get along with, but...she's so tired and everything about the Iomedae case continues to leave her off-balance and metaphorically dizzy with it. 

...she really should get Iomedae some martial arts lessons, being scared for her safety is terrible for her. Maybe krav maga is the one she's thinking of, that's actually more focused on practical self-defense as opposed to tournaments? She'll have to look into studios. 

Iomedae mostly wants to be by herself and pray. She should also request lessons in English reading and writing, which she's going to need, but she doesn't want to ask for things while she's still processing the fact of being a slave of these people and unsure about whether being a paladin means she has to obey them or whether she doesn't because they are in any event not participating in the project of civilization where there are paladins. Like Tar-Baphon. 

Evelyn is pretty worried! She's going to give Iomedae space, though. It doesn't seem like there's any way she can productively be supportive, right now, when half of what Iomedae is upset about is feeling more or less like a prisoner of the foster care system. Which is definitely a feeling resulting from several confusions, but it's not even entirely unfair, she's not the first child to yell about things like that. It's very understandable that she feels helpless and trapped and out of control of her life, and that cannot possibly be a good combination with the guilt of knowing she put fifty of her friends into the same situation. 

Evelyn frets and does a lot of stress-housecleaning and then tries to focus on paying attention to Lily, who is definitely very subdued. She makes a simple pasta vegetable casserole for dinner, hoping Iomedae will actually be willing to a) come down for a few minutes, and b) eat.

Iomedae will of course obey if told to come to dinner.

They will have a quiet subdued dinner, then.