Yeah.

Which parts?

Shrug. Only a few parts? But that's how to tell good stories - the whole thing was meant to make a made up story? Does that make sense? Even the true parts.

Yes, that makes sense.

Thank you.

He beams at her.

She pats him on the shoulder.

She asks Cam to send her his notes on the rest of the magic overview, and goes elsewhere to think.

And then she sends a message that asks Midnight if he is available to talk.

Sure, where?

Either of their rooms is fine with her.

So he invites her over. 

He has had linguistics department daeva pretty the place up. It has live plants and a waterfall and a bookcase full of handwritten books. 

"I like what you've done with the place." She sits.

"Thank you! Humans don't need pretty places so after a while we stopped making the primarily human-trafficked ones resource intensive kinds of pretty but it is among the compromises I've made that I am not at all fond of."

"Daeva should be able to fill the resource gap nicely."

"Daeva are the best. You should get your me into summoning, it's high-downside but not actually at all likely to be a negative experience and there are things you can do to mitigate even that - the linguists are really not dangerous -"

"I'll mention it to him."

"The multiverse must be even more overwhelming, coming from a background when there actually wasn't anything horribly pressingly terrible..."

"Well, not anymore. I think my alts occasionally forget that not only do we have a Melkor of interstellar-Arda-typical intentions and capacities, that Melkor had forks of my husband, and I am not completely incapacitated by the idea of misfortune."

"Oh good. It's not very useful. Did anyone try - rescues -"

"Some people wanted to try rescue simulations of theirs, yes. It was not a much repeated project and the rescued did not appreciate it. Most of them were in much, much subjectively longer than Kib and of course had no protective dreams. Having duplicates available made it possible to run much more sophisticated simulations, too, if Kib weren't in a Flat Angband he couldn't reasonably derive anything from having perfectly-personalitied alts around."

Nod. "Congratulations on averting his parole."

"Thank you."

"What did you want to talk about?"

"I'm not satisfied with the story Findekáno told to explain Karen's observation about his hair when he first came in. I imagine you can lie to me with arbitrary convincingness and selectively worded oaths. But if there's nothing the matter, then there still won't be anything the matter if I ask Cam to conjure up confirmations or disconfirmations of whatever you care to tell me; and if there is something the matter I would like to extend you the chance to fix it without Cam or anyone else but me suspecting it was ever there."

"That's thoughtful of you. Thank you. It was short for a couple centuries, partially because I like it and partially for political reasons."

"Why did you ask me and not him about this?"