"It is not obvious to me if I have leverage over Mioleen flourishing. Aitim presumably but I don't want to make too many assumptions about what he does with his powers when he's not trying to coax aliens into treason in a way that doesn't imply to observers he can be so tempted."

"It has been implied to me that he was instrumental in some of the advances for reds, although Isel is the public face of it. He helped me personally get started when I came out of decontamination. I'm married to his cousin Inlad, incidentally."

He purses his lips and then nods as if this makes perfect sense.

"I take it you've derived a correspondence. Is yours here?"

"Different ship. It is unlikely he survived."

"Ah."

"I can take my questions about - where to lean - to Aitim with a little more confidence, though. - and you can tell Aitim he didn't hurt them, actually, if you don't mind."

"- didn't hurt who?"

"My brothers."

"I can let him know." She emails him; it's short.

Thank you. What were you talking about?

Ex-reds, blues, theology, which of his cousins corresponds to Inlad, should I have been recording?

He runs into her in the coffee shop the next morning. "Doesn't recording not even work, they spend most of their time in the -" he makes swiveling stalk eyes with his fingers.

"He spoke aloud to me from his shape that looks like a desaturated you."

"About what everyone is on about with cleanliness?"

"About how influenceable people are in the details of what they are on about."

"I'll go talk to him. Thank you for the message."

"You're welcome."

"I should kind of have asked him myself." He orders a coffee. 

She picks up her usual without having to ask for it.

"Is his Inlad around?"

"He said he was on a different ship and likely did not survive."

"He's one I have a hard time imagining grey."

Nod.

"Isel, on the other hand, is very pleased to be the only sort of cross-caste Andalite. She's doing more important things, of course, but if there weren't more important things apparently it'd be a great deal of fun. Did Matirin give you much sense of which direction he wants to lean?"