"Should I get out of your hair, then?"

"I would be happy to talk longer if you'd like, but if that's everything I will get to work on notifying the appropriate people and running plans by people I can trust with that.'

"My preferences on the matter are immaterial. I'll go."

"All right." 

And he calls the most levelheaded councilor he knows and trudges over through the snow to talk to them. "So," he says to Crystal as he goes, "it's politically - unhelpful - to come across as overly concerned with reds, because people don't want to think about them and will avoid you and tune you out if you're one of those reds people. I'm going to aim for a framing that doesn't invite those complications, which will probably not sound very much like 'they're people too and murder is bad' but which I do think will keep them safe. Does that work for you?"

Sadai and Crystal were not separated before; the last time this almost happened they couldn't bear it. Now Crystal barely flinches when she feels the bond strain and snap.

There are worse things.

"Yes. We have been here long enough to learn that much."

"Thank you. I don't want you and Sadai to feel like I'm - telling everyone what they want to hear and advancing none of it - but being forthright to everyone will just walk us into walls. The person we're going to meet is Fela Neli, one of the rulers of Anitam."

"We understand politics. You have bought a lot of goodwill by all you've done so far, we're willing to believe you."

"I appreciate it. 

Sadai seems very unhappy."

"We are. There is an aspect of being a vampire we did not talk about because it did not seem productive."

"Is anything about the situation fixable?"

"Not by any resources you have access to. We do not mind if other people know, but there is nothing to be done."

"Okay."

And they reach the house and he thanks the purple at the door and goes into a library.

        "Aitim."

"Neli Fela. Thank you for your time."

       "You said it was urgent."

"I ran across an alien during the snowstorm. She shapeshifts, looks Anitami at present but it's not clear to me that her natural form bears us even a passing resemblance. It's a delicate situation. The alien has somewhat limited and very inconvenient-for-her access to a means of making portals to other planets; she has other things we'd want, including ones that I'd at least approximate as magic. Societies where she's from are structured differently and she's mistrustful of ours and undecided whether she might want to help us."

       "Can we -"

"We don't have anything she wants and I think if we try to coerce her we will die trying. I very much doubt she's told me all of her abilities and the ones she has mentioned - suffice. I want to introduce you to her - representative -"

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Neli Fela," says the glasswinged butterfly, fluttering its wings once. "My name is Crystal."

Blue-haired woman rather goggles. "It is a pleasure to meet you as well. Welcome to Anitam. What can we do for you?"

"Letting us solve all of your problems with minimal fussing would be ideal."

She blinks confusedly at Aitim. 

          "Different societies might not see eye to eye about what constitutes a problem we want aliens to solve," he says.

"And it's rather the obligation of a government to review and oversee changes which affect our people."

"I think we can agree on basic things like 'suffering and death are bad.' Do those sound like problems you want aliens to solve?"

" - death? Solve? The commitment Anitam makes to our people is that they will have a secure and clean and orderly and peaceful society in which their role is valued."

"We are not part of your government, we are a very powerful alien with mysterious goals that involve minimising how often sapient beings experience things they would prefer not to experience, including ceasing to exist. We realise this is not a trivial problem to solve, that's why I'm talking to you."

         "The problem with your - goals - is not that they're too hard but that they're under most circumstances incompatible with values far more important to us. He said you can do a planet, can you do a planet -"

"She can with considerable personal inconvenience arrange a planet, and is likelier to arrange it for people pursuing her aims."

         Sigh. "Our pleasure, of course. Is this an agreement or just your optimism -"

"I am very good at my job, councilor, and happy to put my name to this."

         "- and they're going to be meddling either way -"

"They are. And I think I can find aims we have in common and communicate ours such that there is less risk they'll be incidentally damaged in the pursuit of alien ones."

         "You think."

"On the strength of my optimism about a potential agreement I am requesting your permission to pursue this with my time, my resources, my staff, and enough administrative cover that no one mistakenly concludes I am plotting a coup. I did not come here to request you risk anything but to apprise you of what I am risking."

          She stares at the alien butterfly. "What do the prospects for a planet look like?"

"We expect it would take us a few of your years to find and secure stable access to one. We are willing to stay here long enough to give you more than that—your values matter to us, too, if a secure and clean and orderly and peaceful society in which people's role is valued is what people would prefer to experience then we want you to have that."

" - all right. And what do you want from us right now -"

"We would like you to cooperate with Aitim Neli."

        "If this doesn't serve our country by our own standards inside, say, three years-"

"Then I will have been very gravely mistaken, and I have no doubt people will look into whether I abused the trust that was placed in me."

        "Be sure there's no confusion about where your loyalties lie, Aitim."

"I am grateful for the trust you have extended me."

        Nod. "What else should we expect you to require, Crystal?"

"We do not strictly require any material goods, freedom of movement and the benefit of the doubt if we do weird things should be enough."