"No, I'm definitely going to figure it out and do it. Try to stop me."

"Okay, Nico, you should... Everyone can do lots of things with their life, right? And there's all sorts of bad things in the world, it's not just me and other drakes being a little bit stuck sometimes. That's really not that bad compared to some things. I'm not going to tell you what to do, but... People have been trying that for a long time, and we've gotten lower risk ways to do things, and less inconvenient ways, and there's only so much one person can do, and you don't have to help other people just because they're there. If everyone had to help others all the time, I think the world would be a sad place."

"I don't have to help you but it's not fair that you're stuck, that you need to be so careful."

"Saying it's not fair doesn't fix it, though. Even if it isn't fair, I still have to deal with it."

"Which is why I'm going to fix it! You should be allowed to go where you want like everyone else!"

Tanno sighs. 

"...Nico, I'd be hurting people if I just walked wherever I want. I don't like hurting people, it feels bad to do that. You don't have to make it your mission to fix something that I'm so used to, that it doesn't really bother me anymore. I'm really fine. Plus, you're still young, and you'll probably find lots of things you want to do and get to pick one."

"No, you're sad! I can tell. If you did what you want you'd get in trouble, and that's even worse than walls you can see sometimes. I'm going to do lots of things and helping you is one."

"No, I- Please don't go out of your way. You should be practicing your light show, or learning math, not worrying like this."

"It's rude to keep asking when a request has been denied," Larian comments.

It's not clear which side she's pointing the comment at. Maybe both.

Glare, and a headshake. "If you want to learn about the ways drakes keep everyone else safe from them, I'll tell you about it some other time. Maybe you'll have ideas to help. But- You should be worrying about ball games and your friends, not about old scholars."

Nico pouts.

"It's still not fair."

Larian thumps her book closed. "Is it fair that miss Calsa has to keep her flames from hurting people? Is it fair that I have to keep delicate things dry? That equartiers ought to stay on their paths so as not to bowl people over? That you must refrain from blinding people with your light or hitting them with your fists?"

"...I guess so..." He knows he's about to get out-argued and he already hates it.

"We have laws to prevent people from hurting each other, and help them work together. Because when people cooperate, we are greater than the sum of our parts. I can study plants, and people who don't want to read all day can work on growing them, and people who like cooking can cook all day, and we all work together without constantly being afraid of getting hurt or having your things stolen or anything. Society is a compromise, nobody's getting everything they want, but usually we get more than we would have otherwise. Not everyone contributes the same way, or takes the same amount to support, but we're all trying to get along. If drakes went wherever they wanted, everyone else would be mad, and rightfully so. This is the best thing available- The most fair choice between a lot of pretty unfair choices. So it'll have to do. And that's not to say you can't disagree with the laws, or try to find better ones, just... It'll have to do."

"Larian! Nico. I- Argh!

Okay, Nico, Calsa, I had a lovely time talking to you today, but it's time for you to leave. I promise I'm not mad. I don't think Larian is mad either. I'm just tired. Why don't you come back some other time? I'll have Larian give you a seedling tomorrow, and you can try giving it light for most of a day, for a couple of weeks, and see if it keeps growing. It'll take a whole lot of patience, though. You don't have to if you don't want to."

No it won't. He's going to make a plate for it. They don't know about the plates though. Maybe he can pass them off as an extension of the geometry trick somehow......

"...I'm sorry. I think you're right miss Larian. It's just not fair."

Nico stands up from the sand table.

"Calsa, please just leave the book on a table. I'll get it later."

"Okay. Thank you for having us! Come on."

She reignites once they're a safe distance from the tower.

"It's nice of you to want to help. I don't think you did anything wrong. It's just a stressful thing for them to talk about.

Sometimes when something is bad, it would hurt too much to think about it all the time, so people don't. Sometimes that's good! Like, I could be sad that I'm not smart enough to have a litter, or even to raise other catfolks' kits - the tests have a lot of math - but what would be the point of that? I have Merta and you all. I have a great family.

If you offered to use magic to make me smarter, I would accept, maybe, but I might be sad for a minute right when you asked. And if you said that you wanted to develop that magic, someday, without telling me any of your plans and leaving me to wonder if you actually had any plans, I'd be sad, and I wouldn't have the magic to cheer me up, I'd just be sad.

That doesn't mean you have to keep your ideas secret. If you want to help drakes, I'm sure Tanno has a lot of information on what would be helpful and what wouldn't and what would get in the way. But that's a conversation for when he wants to have that conversation, or is willing to have it because you just did something else nice for him. Like maybe something interesting with a seedling, if you can do that without him noticing your magic! Or we could talk to the Magistrate about letting him know about your magic."

"Only smart catfolk get to have babies? Ugh. Babies..."

Babies being important again. He's been thinking about babies a lot lately. Some people actually want them... Weird but he can't tell people what to want. Except the Magistrate is telling people who can have babies or not! She's arranging it! Or someone is! And everyone expects it and it's like the only thing that makes sense to do is go along with it.

Tanno is right. Everyone being 'nice' and giving up on what they want is bad. Maybe Larian is also right, and you have to compromise...

He wants to pout. Calsa is also right. He has to think about what will make people sad, and not be rude.

It's just that being a Drake would be even worse than just knowing Magistrate Meikalani wants him to stay in Kef and do lots of magic and make Kef rich and help the humans make Kaleid-magic babies. At least he can run away from Kef again if he really has to. Burn points again maybe...

"...I would hate being a Drake so much. And I don't know how to make people smarter. If I can make it seem like the same kind of thing as math controlling lights maybe my magic can be math things."

"Yeah, there's a test. Every year in most cities; only every three years here. They have a mixture of math and reciting poetry and precise use of fire and collaborative logic problems with random partners and collaborative creative writing with your co-parent. Anyone can submit challenges a deci-year in advance, and then some non-contestants are separated to evaluate them in secret. It's a lot of work, but if we didn't do it, it would be the most powerful catfolk who get litters, and then eventually catfolk would all be the kind of people who want power and don't care about things being true, or being nice in ways that don't get them power.

It doesn't have to be math. Werewolves secretly pick a few individuals to decide, who of course give litters to their friends, so now werewolves are really friendly. It could be random, or random but you also need to get 10 people to endorse you... Meikalani had the idea that it could be based on money, but except for a few engineers, money doesn't really come from being smart. So it would favor people who are willing to starve themselves to save up more than their neighbors, which is not actually a good life, not actually how we want to shape ourselves."

"Someone would probably like to have magic that does math! Even if it's just like a sand table that adds up numbers for you, or even just a sand table but bigger and filling a whole room instead of being flat. Can you draw in the air with lights? Ooh, could you make me able to draw in the air with lights? That would be fun to dance with!"

".......Oh right, catfolk and werewolves and frogolds have lots of babies at once." He sighs dramatically. "I guess you have to choose somehow if you can't just let everyone have babies. We didn't really have that many laws... Mostly just not stealing or hurting people. And people talked about freedom a lot. I like that idea, a math table. I've heard of things like that so it should be possible. I can't make other people make glowy lights. I tried that with Lin already! I made some bottles of glowy water though. Dunno what she did with them. Maybe I could make a stick that draws in the air with lights... Or make the lights stick to you? Huh. I've never seen you dance. I think the only dance I can remember is the New Year one."

He holds one arm out high and steps left, turns right, steps left. 

"Two people dance kind of like that. With dancing lights on people's heads and around their feet. People do it on New Year's Day. Mostly if they're getting [married] but sometimes not... Umm, [married] means having a magistrate see two people and saying they're agreeing to live together and probably have babies and having a big party."

"Not having many laws sounds nice."

Huh, what's Lin doing with glowy water in private? Er, actually, what's the Magistrate doing with it?

"Making lights stick to me would be fun! I can keep small flames close to my skin, but I can't keep them burning in any unnatural colors more than a minute. Once I glued a bunch of powders into my fur so I could keep doing various colors for a while, but I had to keep moving the flames around..."

She follows along with his dance, first facing him, and then standing side by side, taking longer leaps and twirls to keep up when he rotates.

"Most species get married! Merta and I didn't until after we had Siki, since there didn't seem like a point. We certainly weren't going to get any catfolk or werewolf kits."

(Merta is happy to make blocks, and experiments with various textures to make them stick together better.

Hmm, there's hardly ever a need to build something without werewolves, but Siki's comments about the Fusil-Tabby expedition come to mind... Could boarks carry enough blocks to build a useful structure in the drybright? Is that more efficient than having werewolves tunnel the whole way there?)

It turns out he can make lights stick to someone else and follow their movements, he just has to keep paying attention to them. Nico practices dancing a bit more and quickly decides that dancing properly is really hard, you have to move carefully and it's also tiring, and also his dad would have HATED it so, so much, so obviously he has to get as good at it as he possibly can! He will practice dance routines and arrangements of lights with Calsa, grinning and bouncing happily about it. He doesn't really understand what makes a good dance, but he's very enthusiastic.

He's accumulating a fair list of hobbies at this point, enough that his days sometimes feel outright busy. Dance practice, playing with blocks and stone gears and wheels, skipping rocks with Lin, playing with his mice, walking in the drakefield (while always being scrupulous about being safe) and sneakily using Diagnose on the plants and talking about plants with the drake and kappa, his illusion shows in the main square, talking about clockwork and math with Siki and Lin, and trying new experiments with magic, and spinning and sewing. 

More time passes.

A 'light plate' that shines steadily works fine, but can only be filled by his limited magic, so only really useful for seeing if plants grow under his light. (They do.) He tries another diagram he half-remembers from the book a few times, it's supposed to let magic through only one way, but it doesn't seem to work. He opens up to Merta a bit after she makes blocks, and asks questions about Kef's laws sometimes. He impulsively tries growing his own hair fur out with Green magic, unwilling to test it on the mice who would be hard to shave, nor on a person-volunteer. He gains about a quarter of an inch, and his head hurts for a bit, which is a little scary- So he'll have to try different things on animals after all. (He doesn't share this experiment with his new family.)

He really likes dancing! He thinks he and Calsa should do a dancing show together!

The lights are great! Teaching him to dance is great! She would love to do a dancing show together!