He comes down a couple minutes later. " - Niblet, Theodore's trying to raise a dozen baby dragons, you're going to have to be careful but I want you to keep an eye on him and make sure he gets his injuries treated and doesn't have them all out at once and so on. You can tell him I sent you, and that I told him you had better not get hurt."

Niblet sniffles. "You won't set me free, you won't -"

"I'm so pleased with you, you do such good work, you're my favorite." Hug. "I love you. Okay?"

Sniffle. And then there's a pop and he's gone. 

"I apologize, I didn't realize that would panic - her? Him?"

"Him - what did you say?"

"I said it would be useful if we could come up with a way to prove to third parties that your elves are better off not freed as a sort of image management thing - do you want the transcript, I transcribed it."

"Sure." Sigh. "It's a very sensitive topic. I asked him when I was five if I could free him and then take him right back and he was terrified.  - they do feel the same way about it when they are freed, for what that's worth."

She sends the transcript. "It's not nothing, but..."

"Not totally satisfying, yeah. Could try to get them to push up the age at which new ones get added to the household, except they're so secretive about how that works..."

"And that holds up against their masters wanting to know? How do they - explain that -?"

"It's private. Same if you try to ask them how they have children in the first place, or if you try to ask about something someone else has asked them not to mention - they're apologetic and they repeat that it's private and then they get upset if you push it..."

"Are all their owners so considerate of their feelings, or does that just correlate with curiosity in the first place?"

"Even if you don't care about their feelings, upset elves are just a hassle. I am sure there are people who have attempted torturing information about their spouses' lovers out of their elves but it's not the sort of thing one brags about."

Nod.

"Could ask them if they consent to mindreading, and try to tell if there's a mind-affecting element to the slavery thing with someone who'll agree to that."

"I suppose that might be informative."

Sigh.

"I'm sorry I upset him."

"It's okay. It's hard not to, honestly. I should've been closer."

"The mistake was predictable in retrospect." Sigh.

"You could actually probably have slid it past most of them because it wouldn't even occur to them that someone who cared about them would free them to satisfy public appearances."

"So clearly I should try it again with a different one?"

"I don't know that you'd get a constructive answer but you probably wouldn't get a meltdown."

"Well, I don't think I care to risk it soon."

"I'm sorry."

"I'm fine, I just hope I didn't frighten Niblet irrecoverably."

"He'll be fine."