"Whatever is convenient of course ma'am."

She looks away. She’s making a face and doesn’t want to be making it at Nelen.

"I don’t really care. Not if you don’t."

He can't think of a good reply to that.

"Is there literally any object that would solve your problems if you had it?"

He actually thinks about that one good and hard.

"I don't think so."

"Shame, I'm really good at problems you can solve with stuff. Unfortunately your problem maybe calls for rule of law or indestructibility for your whole family or the ability to heal all wounds and turn into a bird. Well, I'm outta here."

Turn into a bird??

"Thank you for explaining to me, ma'am."

"Totally. Oh, actually. No matter what email setup you have, no matter if you have to write it on the floor in your own blood, you can always reach me if you write 'Mail for Santa Inanna Vashti'."

"- I don't know how to spell that, ma'am."

A pad of sticky notes appears with her mail label at the top of each one. "Now you do. I might not be able to get to you very quickly but I will if I’m around. And if you die of this nonsense I will get you back, and if you end up in a realm of eternal torment I will get you out. Well, I'd hire someone to get you out."

"...thank you ma'am."

She leaves. The door hasn’t even finished shutting behind her when the guy from before reappears.

Nelen blinks at him but doesn't chance a "hi".

"I don’t suppose whatever you two talked about got you to chill."

"Chill, sir?"

"Should I expect talking to you to be less frustrating if I try it again."

"I don't know, sir."

"Well, do you want to tell me if you have some obvious advice that anyone who wasn't a complete idiot and knew things every Amentan knows would be able to think of about whether we can do something better than facilitate Amenta getting all the technology the other castes want and then get you folks a planet in another universe?"

"I would recommend talking to the community organizers about this, sir, I'm not one myself."

"Are you going to tell me who one is and how to get in contact with them?"

"I only know my own but she will know others sir."

"Does she have an email address and do you think it's safe to use it?"

"I don't know if she has a public one. Usually email is as safe as anything."

"We can also communicate by causing paper notes to appear and read anything addressed to us even if it’s been burned. Or I can go visit her in person."

"...I suppose you could, sir."