"There is literally nothing I could say to Olwë short of 'I had all my staff adapt welding tools into ranged weapons and they are going to use them to murder you' that would get him worried about a war. And even that would probably just get me -" he imitates someone - "I understand that you're very upset, Maitimo, but really, won't that just upset a lot more people?"

"If you go into Voa and say you're furious," says Isama, "they probably start thinking you're going to line 'em up and -" Throat-slitting gesture.

Nod. 

"Hmm?"

"Forty years ago or so the Oahk Empire took a lot of places - including the flat half of Anitam, the mountainous parts and the coast were not really worth bothering - and they weren't friendly even in the cases of surrender but where it came to conquest that's what they'd do when they won. Lined up the blues and killed every third, or anyone who moved."

"Charming. - and I guess maybe less of a terrible idea, with Muggles."

"Not a terrible idea?"

"Not a strategically terrible idea, of course it's abhorrent."

"Wizards there just aren't enough of?"

"If that's what could be expected from losing, the winner'd be ruling a heap of ash. Also there aren't enough of us but that's secondary."

"What'd they do if people surrendered?"

"Occupied, implemented their highly coercive child credits system, more or less did exactly as they pleased as soldiers in occupied territory will -"

" - for the benefit of those members of your audience whose soldiers would set up soup kitchens and repair peoples' televisions -"

"Maybe for your benefit I should elide it. Kick people out of their homes because they want to live there, have people arrested for muttering on the street or being rude, take advantage if they care to -"

"I assume all the colors getting the treatment you dish out to reds all the time does not prompt people to have more empathy -"

"Good guessing! No, it doesn't. Anyway most of Voa's too young to remember the war firsthand but Governor Avalor would, she'd have still been alive when you landed -"

"Still is, we made her immortal."

"I would like to see her if that's ever feasible."

"We didn't precisely get along. I could - see that she'd done a lot with what she had, but it's grating to hear someone say 'oh, reds are allowed to report crimes committed by their betters' - "

"I am sure I've said something like that while selling people on structuring the courts to let them report anonymously."

"But you were lying."

" - true. I - if you demand absolute ideological purity from your allies you'll have none."

"She also explained to me that all reds were too dumb for Voa to be missing any great thinkers or leaders from the way it treats them."

He sighs.

"Don't push it," he says to Maitimo, "he might believe that too."