"That's a relief. I was talking to one of the reds a bit ago and they pointed out that even after we set them up in the poles no one's really going to want to trade with them..."

"Not really, no."

"What if we cleaned them?"

"Can't be done, it's hereditary."

"What would you have said a week ago if someone had said they wanted to make the poles habitable and have seasons?"

"We at least have research departments working on that! And you didn't mean to go public about magic, I thought?"

"Not prematurely. I don't object to going public about it in principle, it's merely not obviously the best idea until I have a very good reason, and making everyone less—wary—of interacting with them is a very good reason."

"Let's discuss it when you're back."

"Okay. I left them enough food to last them a month, if they agree to it I will want to ward each of them individually and then I'll come back, but—how likely do you think it is that you're wrong or that they'll change their minds about wanting to bother these reds?"

"- I don't know. I'm wrong about what foreign policies countries will pursue, in contexts where they have incentive to be unpredictable, maybe one time in ten."

"...if you're wrong do you know over what time frame they're most likely to do anything?"

"Maybe when they decide to do it everywhere? If they do decide that."

"...okay. I'll ward them individually then go."

"Uninjurable reds would cause quite a panic. I suppose less so if they flee."

"The wards produce very plausibly deniable effects. Grazing hits, near misses, wounds that are not that deep... You only really notice there's something weird going on if you're really insistent and they'd probably run, yeah."

"All right. How long does that take you per-person, or could you do a whole area -"

"It needs to be done individually but it takes only a few minutes per."

"But you couldn't secretly do the whole world or anything. What a shame."

"Unfortunately not, no."

"All right. Well, take care."

"You too." She hangs up, then looks around for the nearest person.

Red lady in new clothes Sadai brought, hanging out laundry to dry.

"Excuse me," she says in Orvaran from a polite distance.

"- yes?"

"I will need to become temporarily absent, and I would like to place individual physical wards on all of you. Do you think you could ask people whether they want that? I don't want to spook anyone."