"Yeah. They do seem to be doing okay on their own. - oooh, these ones invented walls. Good job humans."

"...before agriculture?"

"Looks like it."

"That doesn't sound right."

He angles the palantir so she can see little stone buildings.

"Those look pretty post-agriculture to me."

He tries another Muggle-repelling charm. "Still Muggles."

"Muggles do agriculture!"

"Yeah, I was thinking if they were wizards they might've skipped it. Maybe Dwarves built the buildings and abandoned them or something."

"Aaron, do these look Dwarfy -"

Aaron does not think so.

"Could we in fact absorb them - if they're Muggles they're not more valuable than unsworn orcs, I guess they couldn't be irretrievably compromised but they could be pretty compromised -"

"Could ask the Dwarves to take them in."

"Might be good."

Aaron flies off to ask about that. 

"If this world's God isn't even your God he won't object to the potions," Michael says to his wife that night.

"...I'm not an Eru-ist though I'm a Catholic."

"I could - I just don't want to definitely never again -"

"There are no priests around at all so I am kind of not - going to confession tomorrow anyway - I - ugh -" She plops her face on his chest.

Chaste kiss on the forehead. "Yeah."

"If you really want me to take it -"

"I don't want you to feel like you're - betraying yourself - but I'm not going to - they're right that this isn't a good world to bring kids into -"

"The idea is that God decides that. It does sort of seem like He might be biased in favor."

"Little bit."