She thinks about what he said some more.

"I think you really could use a hug. You- Are you afraid of touching people? Because they might be secretly human? And have a magic baby? Can they do it just from touch?"

Nico shakily nods.

"Oh...Kay. That's different. And magic. But you know I'm me, and not a 'human', right? And I really want to hug you right now. Please?"

"-Fine."

Nico crosses his arms, but nods. So Lenora hugs him. And stands there and hugs a bit more. And then releases him and steps back.

"New kinds of magic are really really valuable. Everyone seems to think so. They- They try to have a few of every kind that works, I think. And - our magic can do anything. Just not very much of anything. Gale Rocks was used to that. We had rules about not burning for revenge and stuff. Everyone knows how you get points and how to exercise them. I think the flexibility is really scary, because you can never know what we'll do next. And maybe I should be the only one ever on this planet. But you followed me. I have no idea why."

"To rescue you."

"That doesn't make sense... Ugh. But that means more people might follow eventually."

"I don't think so. But I can't rule it out, I guess..."

"I thought, even when I figured out what all old people do with green, to keep myself hearty for longer, it'd be- Hundreds of years? But not forever. And I could just be, alone until then, and not wreck everything. 'Cause there's gonna be Kaleid who burn their magic to kill everyone else, if there are any but me. People are mostly evil."

"No, I'm pretty sure people are mostly good. Most people like helping their friends or their families or their neighbors, or at least someone. Just... Not very good. What you need to do is teach well and make laws about not burning points for destruction. Like- Okay, some of the laws for malice-burning sound really evil if you don't know what they're punishment for. Torture, and erasing your name, and stuff like that? That sounds evil, right? But it keeps people from blowing everything up. We'll never burn points maliciously, because we know it's a... What's the word... Negative feedback loop? I think it'd be okay if there were more Kaleid if you made sure to make those kinds of laws. And Kaleid are really useful. I mean, if there aren't green casters here, don't people sometimes die of bad hearts and things? That's the number one most common thing doctors treat, and number two is cancer."

"There's only me, and I'm not a doctor."

"Nico. I just realized something. There's me now. I'm not officially a doctor but I bet I can figure most of the rest out, and learn over time. It's not just you and me we'd have to heal. How many people are in the world? Millions? That's a million people who could use a green doctor to live healthier and longer. Do you know how many people live in Gale Rocks? A few thousand maybe? We could save the lives of everyone we ever met... A thousand times over, in however many years, when there are lots of grandbabies. Oh stars and colors. I- I have to do it. I gotta be a mom."

"That's why I wasn't thinking about it. I hate it. I hate being - I hate having to- Do the right thing, the thing I hate, because it's what you're supposed to do. It's so important that there be Kaleid babies and I be a big brother to them and teach them. It's more important than anything else I do or invent. It means I don't matter, I just-"

"I don't like it either but... I'm gonna do it. So you don't have to. It doesn't matter if you do or not anymore. 'Cause I will. Unless you're gonna stop me?"

He just shakes his head.

"See? I got to rescue you after all! Just from having babies, instead of monsters."

He tries to laugh, but it's more like a choke.

Lenora swoops in and fixes everything, huh?

"...We would like to talk to the magistrate," he tells his Tengu guard, feeling oddly floaty.

The tengu nods... "She welcomes you to her town, miss kaleid Lenora, and offers you the same promises she made to Nico."

"You are officially welcomed. He's talking to the magistrate too right now."

"Neat magic. And yay?"

"-Maybe in person. Lenora wants to talk about babies."

"Okay."

If she fetches all the human women it will look suspicious. How about she fetches one of them, the one Nico knows, and hm, is Larian awake? - it's fine if she's not, what matters is that she was invited - and Merta, and of course Fuzzer will come along with the kaleids. Conveniently, Quiet Pavel isn't available.

Larian is not awake.

Just say it. It's not any harder to say just because all these important(?) people are listening.

"My friend Lenora has come from our home, Gale Rocks. She thinks it would be good for Ansaf if there are more Kaleid."

She waves!

(She looks pretty distinct from Nico, even ignoring skin color. Her eyes are almost avian. Her child-sized frame is corded with unusual muscle. Something about her posture is different. Her palms are textured.)

Ah, an adult kaleid, or a child who looks odd enough that it would be a totally understandable mistake to think she's an adult?

"Any employable number of kaleids would be welcome in Kef, and of course all may pass through to other towns."

Lenora can be the one to raise the topic.

Neffie arrives, slips out to gulp an abortifacient, and... walks back in normally. It's actually nothing to hide.

"A skilled practitioner of green Kaleid magic can treat most symptoms of senescence. I don't have a full doctor's education but I am considered a green prodigy. I consider it a moral obligation to permit this service to, in time, be available to more people. I'm not gonna have a baby with Nico, since he doesn't want that, but I understand there's magic that can let people have babies with me."

He translates this with a couple word substitutions. And tries not to have feelings about it.

"There is. Kef will reward anyone who bears or raises a kaleid here, up to a limit, with a reward for you as well, or any other kaleid target."

"Are you enough of a doctor to ensure that the attempt will be safe for the mother?" Hopefully yes, to reassure Nico, although Neffie herself will be giving birth far away, unable to benefit from Lenora's treatment, and doesn't care about the risk.

"How do you want to choose the dams and parents?"

"If distinct." Human mothers raise their own babies, kitty.

"I'm not gonna make stuff up but I did all my alterations myself. I had another four years of school left in the usual doctoring track. But all the doctors at home said I am really good. I was trusted by doctors to treat people unsupervised, and I have diagnosed things that fully trained doctors missed before, and I helped birth goats on farms that raised animals. I'm really confident that, especially with regular checkups, I can tell if a baby is going to hurt someone.

-So, the thing is, do you all know how Nico and I got here? Kaleid magic can be really dangerous and it is very taboo to use it in certain ways. I think we treat it as seriously as you treat disinuria. Maybe worse. I think it'll cause problems if baby Kaleid don't know how to generate and exercise their magic, and the common sense and rules that Kaleid use to make sense of it. I think it's probably going to be for the best if I'm around any baby Kaleid, maybe not as a parent but as a teacher."