Most kids in the US can't lie about their age because records exist for them, Evelyn doesn't say. Plausibly a lot of kids do successfully lie about their age, in places no one actually checks, and Evelyn does not, in fact, end up meeting them. (She's looked after a girl who, for complicated reasons, lied about her age to say she was younger than she was, but that's different.) 

Iomedae would just have been deported if she said she were over eighteen, Evelyn also doesn't say. It seems entirely possible that Iomedae would have preferred that. 

"...Yeah. It sounds like your parents did a good job of teaching you those things." I hope you see them again someday, she also doesn't say, because she doesn't know yet if she means it, and it won't help. 

...And back to the children's book on construction sites, for some more (non-fraught, not-a-surprise-civics-exam) English vocabulary? 

(It's now just past 3 pm, meaning that Lily's school bus will drop her off in half an hour. And Evelyn really wants to check her phone for a response from Emily on whether she wants to come over tonight and if so what time. Evelyn is going to excuse herself to go to the bathroom a couple of minutes later, both to retrieve her phone and to give Iomedae and Alfirin a couple of minutes' privacy to talk, if they wanted to do that.) 

"...So we just need to wait three years, and not break any laws, and then we are free and can go home. Or places more like home than America."

"Yes. Three years feels like a long time because I am impatient but it's not so bad, really. Many mistakes would have been much more costly than that. ...for you it might be more like five years, how old did you tell them you are?" She's carefully avoiding asking how old Alfirin actually is, because she isn't able to lie but she's allowed to be ignorant of things.

"I do not know how old I am. I did not know how to count when I was a baby."

"In Taldor when it is Aroden's ascension day, everyone is one year older, so we tell the babies, now you are one, and the one year olds, now you are two, and so on. I guess it makes sense they would not do that in all places. 

There are...fifty weeks in a year? So if Evelyn gives us ten dollars every week for mysterious Evelyn reasons then by the time we are freed we will have fifteen hundred dollars. I wonder if that's enough money for passage to Absalom or not. I suppose even if it's not it'll be easy to earn enough once we're free."

"Maybe my spellbook has a spell to teleport and we won't need to pay passage."

"That would be amazing." She's not clear on whether teleporters can take other people or not but Alfirin should look out for Alfirin, here. She's also not clear on anything else about teleporters; they're a thing out of legends. 

Evelyn has received a text!

Emily would be delighted to come by and meet some teenagers newly in foster care. Emily wants to know if she can bring her girlfriend along, or is that going to be an issue? Evelyn mentioned that the teenagers - or at least one of them - was very religious? So it sounds like it might be an issue? 

UM. 

...Evelyn texts back to say that it's almost certainly not an issue (she...has a hard time imagining Iomedae's particular take on God objecting to same-sex relationships) and if it is she'll handle it. Emily's...girlfriend (who Evelyn has definitely not met)...is welcome to join them, if it seems like a good idea to Emily...? 

Great! They'll be over by 4:30. Emily's girlfriend has a car and is driving. 

...Okay. This is not even, objectively speaking, all that awkward. (She's going to get to meet Emily's partner!!! Which is honestly pretty exciting! Jeremy doesn't even bring any of his girlfriends home, or - ever mention them, actually.) 

Evelyn heads back downstairs. 

"Lily's going to be home from school soon. And - the foster child who used to live here, who I talked about before - Emily - she does want to come over and meet both of you." 

Pause. ...Ugh, do either of them know the word 'girlfriend'? Or 'partner'? Or 'dating', wow, almost certainly not. She's pretty sure Iomedae knows the word 'wife' but that's not even accurate, as far as she knows this is still, like, casual dating. Evelyn is absolutely not about to use the term 'lover' here, she would die of embarrassment. 

"- Emily has a romantic relationship with a girl and her girlfriend is coming over with her," she says, because the pause has gotten awkwardly long. "Did– tell me if those were words you don't know...?" 

"I do not know romantic, or relationship." She knows girlfriend; it's obviously 'friend who is a girl', because English doesn't gender words like 'friend'.

"...'Romantic relationship' means - someone who you like in the way where you might want to marry them," Evelyn says. "- Not that I know if Emily is interested in marrying her girlfriend, specifically, but - that sort of thing." This is the wooooooorst. "...I said yes, to Emily bringing her girlfriend too, because I like to meet all of my former foster children's friends and - people they like or love." 

"...with magic?"

What?

...No, actually, what??? Evelyn - is not entirely surprised that Iomedae thinks magic is real, given all of the...everything...but she has no idea what would make that seem like a reasonable response to her (honestly-really-embarrassing) attempt to convey the concept of Emily being lesbian? 

"No, they're going to drive here together in a car," she says, which she knows is a stupid response and almost certainly not answering Iomedae's actual question but. She doesn't know what Iomedae's actual question is. 

" - magic so a girl can get another girl a child."

Ohhhhhhhh. That makes...slightly more sense. 

"I - wow, I am not an expert on this," and she should probably not tell Iomedae to ask Emily, Emily plausibly does not want to be asked about this the moment she walks in the door. "I - think not everyone who gets married wants kids. But - I think sometimes two women who are married will - if they don't want to adopt a child who was born from other parents who can't take care of them - they would have a man give them his - sperm, seed,"

Evelyn is DYING OVER HERE,

"- and one of the women would be pregnant with the baby, and they would raise the baby together. ...I think scientists - very smart people who study things - are working on a way that two women can have a baby together the same way that a woman and a man would. But we're not there yet, and - none of it would be magic, it's just - science, like how flying a rocket to the moon is just science." 

"Then I think magic maybe not the word for the thing I mean. It good if people fight everything and science new ways to have what they want. God says to do that."

...Oh good that sounds like there is not going to be a problem. 

"- Yeah. I think that's right."

She should probably explain why this was even a conversation she had to have. It might come up for Iomedae later.

"- In America, a lot of people who worship God think that the Bible, the scripture, says that - that a man marrying a man, or a woman marrying a woman - is wrong, and means they would go to Hell. I don't think that, and it sounds like you don't either, but - I think Emily was nervous, when I said you were a holy warrior, that you might - be angry with her about loving a woman. ....Does that make sense?" 

"- the holy book say it is - I don't know the English - like killing a person not deserve killing, or like praying to Asmodeus, or like make your slave lie with you or send your baby to Limbo -"

(...Evelyn is going to make a quiet mental note of "Asmodeus" as a proper noun, she - thinks this isn't the first time she's heard Iomedae mention it?) 

"- To be clear, I don't think the holy book says that! People - kind of disagree a lot about what the holy book says. But - yeah, some people say it's like killing an innocent person or - bad things like that." 

"The holy book I know not say that but if something maybe make you go to Hell you should not do it, and the president priests should ask God if it is bad or no."

...Two women can have babies together? That's amazing.

"Can two mans make babies also?"

....Well this is now even more awkward. Great. Evelyn continues to be spectacularly unqualified for...all of this. 

(The "president priests"? Iomedae is...possibly operating on the assumption that America is much more religious - or much more a, what's the word? a theocracy? - than is actually the case. Evelyn is watching the clock for Lily's bus dropoff time and does not have the energy to confront this head-on.

...on further thought she doesn't know if that means the President's - as in the president of America's - priests, or if Iomedae is grabbing for words she knows and trying to describe the Pope? ...The Pope is almost certainly against gay marriage. Evelyn hasn't, like, checked this recently, and doesn't really want to bring it up anyway.)

- oh good, Alfirin just asked a question. Evelyn had been worried about how quiet Alfirin has been, and is glad that she's comfortable asking questions. 

"- I think it's about the same for two men as for two women? Scientists are working on it, but right now they need a woman to - donate their, uh, eggs." That is almost certainly not going to make any sense to these poor kids who have no science education. "- The women's part of making a baby. You can take it out of a woman and - put it together with the sperm, and then - I think for two men, they do need a woman to - grow the baby in. It's called being a surrogate." 

Why is she having this conversation right now. It's so surreal and uncomfortable. 

Oh right Iomedae also had a question. "- I think nobody in America has - a way of asking God questions and getting answers that other people will take seriously?" Evelyn says, and there should really be a follow-on to that but she can't think of it yet.