She will tolerate this rather awkwardly. She is making such a face. She pats his shoulder gently.

Tanno is looking a little bit teary-eyed himself.

"I agree. I would have cried too, if I'd been attacked and my friend hurt like that. I think almost anyone would have. And I'm glad you trust us enough to tell us about your magic. Also... Is that how you know so much about how to keep the plants alive? If so, I should be paying you for your advice." His voice has gained a slight teasing tone.

He nods, and laughs a little bit, and un-hugs Larian.

And then he frowns again, thinking about the Magistrate and the rest of Kef and... Everything that's going to happen, how this kind of thing is probably going to happen again. And people will get hurt again or maybe even die. Like Tomas is going to die. Because he was a criminal, and tried to kidnap him, and did disinuria by being bigger... But mostly because Nico was there. None of it would have happened if he wasn't here.

"...Do you two like the Magistrate? I'm kind of scared that no matter what she says, it'll make sense... I know that sounds weird..."

UM.

"I hardly know her," Larian says immediately. "All I really know is that I would absolutely hate being one and I'm glad I don't have to. I'd have to talk to people all the time."

"I'd hate being a Magistrate too I think."

"Meikalani has a reputation for being fair... Magistrates have to talk to a lot of people and think about a lot of different things. She might not want what's best for you specifically, because she's not you, she's herself. And there's a lot of other people to worry about. You're worried about people convincing you of things even if they're not true?"

Nico nods rapidly.

"Hmm. Yeah, that sounds scary. I don't know how to fix that except maybe by talking to different people and seeing different places. I have a book that talks about how to know if things are really true, but it's more about statistics than things people say... And really advanced for your age."

"If you think someone is lying, just don't believe them."

"Oi. Don't listen to that. Nico, I would like to make a guess and say something, but it might upset you. Do you want me to say this anyway?"

"Yes! Don't keep it a secret now that you've said it."

"I couldn't put how I tell this into words, but I think you're scared a lot of the time. Scared because your magic is something new that everybody wants. It's a pretty impressive magic if you can heal people. We don't have anything much like that yet, even lieflings can't fix whole eyes, they can just make medicine. But - having something other people want can be scary."

He shuffles awkwardly. "...You guys were my friends before you knew that part. And Calsa I think is okay too. An' maybe Siki and Lin and Merta. But other people might be nice 'cause they know about my magic."

"The world is complicated, kiddo."

"Friendships are never formed without any kind of ulterior motive. Nobody does anything without some kind of motive."

"Sometimes your friends want things. Sometimes they don't. If they're only your friend to get things they want from you, they might not be a very good friend. And sometimes they'll be interested in different things than you and stop being friends, without being mean or wrong. But that doesn't mean that friendships aren't real. I don't know... I forgot what I was trying to tell you, except 'it's okay to be scared'."

"...Don't like people telling me what to do. Or being fake friends." Sniff. "Let's talk about eyes some more."

In the drydark, equartier paths are crowned, so you can feel with your feet to stay centered. There certainly aren't railings, which would be more danger than they're worth when you're running at two hundred mph. A groove between the lanes drains water away, not that there's likely to be water, but it costs nothing to add. The surface is rough and flat, with informational exceptions: A mile brightward of Kef on the incoming lane, a segment crossed by grooves tells you to slow down. On the outgoing lane, a segment of lengthwise grooves tells you speed up. When the path has been extended, the incoming markers will have to moved and changed, to put a high-speed fork farther away, and a deceleration point on a new lane that goes to Kef.

For now, the equartier carrying Abilanedi slows down to a jog at the current marker and approaches the low-speed fork between the old water district and the steel district. As usual, the light from the town drifts over enough to see the path. But today, there is another light: small flames on the path itself say 'stop ahead' (a square with a bar through it) and 'stop' (two squares in a row), and beyond that the edges of the path are well-lit.

And there waits an elph.

Once Abilanedi is standing on his own feet, Meikalani bows very deeply. This is her town, where she could have stationed guards and archers and catfolk with gravelbags, as she has in fact done. An extreme show of personal vulnerability is necessary to balance that.

"The Leaping Water under the Striped Mountain* welcomes you, brother. Will you attend my shrine or** seek your wealth with the virtue of alacrity?"

* a town that Mortikesh visited, who had heard rumors of her travels and feared the change she would bring, but ultimately benefited greatly, and maintained their unique artistic traditions throughout the disruption.

** 'attend my shrine or' see https://glowfic.com/replies/2025675#reply-2025675

"Thank you for talking with me, Nico.

I would like to try to keep you a secret for the next five cycles.

I have failed to protect you. What, then, can Kef offer you that other places cannot? I still think the answer is safety. And maybe wealth - not personal luxury, not even a larger volume of business, but more variety of opportunity here, dealing with any individuals who have ideas and money, rather than dons who move carefully and prioritize the stability of their species.

What are your thoughts, or do you want to address some other of your questions first?"

"I thought about it miss Magistrate and I think what makes me the most mad is people acting like I'm stupid and don't understand things and they get to make choices for me 'cause of for your own good or 'cause of you have to be nice or 'cause of I said so and I'm the boss, like my parents always did. I'm not stupid. And I know I can't just do whatever I want because there are crimes. Everyone here has been mostly nice... You're talking to me like an adult yesterday and now. And being a secret makes sense so I'm not really mad but I know you don't want the same things I want."

He fusses and fidgets.

"The thing that makes me second most mad is when I don't know if I can trust people. Maybe they're pretending to be nice 'cause they want magic. Maybe they're saying things in sneaky ways and spying on me. Maybe they're making it so the only idea that's not dumb is the thing that they want me to do. I mostly like Kef and I owe Kef for paying Calsa to take care of me and for people being nice and teaching me and stuff. It's not fair for me to just run away. But I don't owe... Forever in-fin-ite. And I don't know if I can trust anyone in Kef anymore. I'm only mostly sure of Calsa 'cause I talk to her a lot and it's hard to pretend all the time, and maybe I shouldn't be sure."

Ouch.

"Some people, you can talk to straight and they deal with you fairly. Some people like to be helpful. Some people will try to cooperate but make a hash of it. And some people will wreck your plans out of spite.

It is clear that I made a mistake. Not just when I first met you, but after you learned more Sotalese and displayed your character, and I failed to reconsider my approach.

Let me show some Kef spirit and tell you what I want and what I have to offer. I want my people to prosper. I want my town to have consistent laws. I want to continue my experiments: the lack of dons and the individual ownership of money.

Kef is threatened by its own success, admittedly more due to our luck at finding iron ore here, than due to my wisdom. A young elph from Argolake academy has been trying to get Kef split, taking the old water district for himself. He is unwilling to follow my precedent in governing it.

I have arranged to help him establish his own town to harvest ice, darkward of Kef. Once he has seen the progress for himself, in a few cycles, I hope the threat to Kef will be gone for a long time.

The increased trade will make it impossible to keep you secret. I think the remote location will still be safer for you than most towns, but clearly I do not have the control over immigration than I thought I did.

Drawing attention will soon no longer be as risky, and I want you to stay in Kef because you will bring prosperity wherever you go. I can also offer you money, of course, and support, just like any Magistrate who isn't a fool.

And I want there to be more kaleids. Whether in Kef or not."

Hiss.

"...I thought so when I saw humans in town. I want to be the first kind of person. I think you're right about prosperity. Even though I never went to school 'cause my dad hated Kelos and I didn't bring a book with me 'cause I'd have to steal it I am probably going to keep figuring things out."

He - does the mental motion of trying to look at Calsa. Turns his head vaguely in her direction, at least. He's off by a bit.

"I think it's scary too. Lin said humans can do that, but sometimes they die. But I guess I already made someone die by being in Kef..."

He looks back in the general direction of Meikalani.

"Is Lin really a kid who got rescued from bandits? She showed up at the same time I did. Either there are a LOT of bandits or that was, um... Lucky, or she's not."

"I also want to be the first kind of person. All Magistrates should be.

It wouldn't be your fault if a human died trying, unless you somehow made them try. And getting attacked wasn't your fault either. If you care about people not dying, there are plenty of ways of arranging that, some involving you and some not. I think it's equally virtuous to pay for lieflings to experiment with new medicine and biologists to study what their medicine does, or to invent safety features for equartier paths, or to get really good at gently but decisively defending yourself before an attacker uses disiniuria, or to pay for humans to have the very best doctors. They all save lives.

No, Lin is an adult frogold who's a bit small, whom I assigned to keep you safe. I failed. She did beautifully, but I was not expecting such a vicious attack to be possible without disiniuria. She could have protected you from almost anything else, and she could have used counter-disiniuria to take down almost anyone if she had been able to see. I should have given you more guards, and made at least one of them a jailor."