"Deeply, deeply unsatisfied," says the garnet.

"If you want to know exactly how miracles work, talk to Lazarus," he says. "After the meeting."

The garnet nods, apparently considering this a reasonable answer.

"While I'm at it," says Mial, "there's no reason third-siahrs shouldn't be able to turn out lights and sorcerers and mages at the same rate as the non-siahr population, so they can have that too. And no esu, I forgot to explicitly mention no esu before, but no esu is definitely an important point. As for what characteristics they share with siahrs - they will, of course, speak Reform Draconic. They may as well come in the same set of colour groups. I see we've got at least one dragon from every colour group here. I know I want all third-siahrs to have my colour group's advantages by default, but maybe you have different opinions. Let's hear 'em."

"It's not like there's anything wrong with turning into a lot of stuff," says the short emerald woman, "but that's hardly the most interesting thing to be doing with the opportunity. Most people never even use all five forms."

"Yes, and I don't know how the hell they do it, I'd used up five forms by the time I was seventy," says Mial, "but more to the point, you're an emerald, do you want all third-siahrs to be empaths?"

"I don't know if they'd all want to be empaths, but omitting empathy from the project entirely seems like an oversight."

"Okay. So, by default, green-group third-siahrs are empaths but the rest of them aren't. What about the other colour group traits? Violet-groups should stay their own thing, I imagine, and maybe not everybody wants to be as keen on fire as a red-group or as keen on flying as a white-group, but what about black-group improved senses?"

The obsidian, one of the color reps who came, says, "They can be overwhelming at times, but this can be compensated for, especially with modern conveniences, and is normally a strict advantage."

• No esu
• No spontaneous death
• No dragon magic
• No name expiration
• Ten forms for everyone
• Black-group dragon senses for everyone

"No dragon magic means no mechanism for unusuals and uniques to naturally occur," volunteers Lazarus. "Maybe all third-siahrs should be the equivalent of unusual dragons of their colour group."

"Sure, why not," says Mial. He remembers one of his previous suggestions and silently adds a point to the list: Same chance for lights, sorcerers, mages as non-siahr Elcenians. "Any thoughts on Everyone Is Unusual?"

"Valid point. Everyone Is Unusual except red-groups, who can optionally become unusual at some slightly more mature age like I don't know ninety?" he suggests. "What's a reasonably mature age for relatively normal siahrs, I was racing scoots at eighty-one, I make a terrible baseline."

"...Okay," says Mial, half-absently petting Finnah's feathers and very consciously ignoring the green man. "Ninety or ninety-five. Are there any other colour groups whose unusual characteristics should come in late for safety reasons? I don't think so, but I don't know everything."

"Yeah, you, get lost," Mial says to the green man. "Whatever you're trying to say is pretty clearly not relevant to this meeting and I don't want to deal with it."

"I apologize," says the green man, but he does not get lost.

Mial gives the green a look, but then turns his attention to Kimmet. "You were saying?"

"I was going to say, it can be hard to keep track of even non-unusual baby white groups and I'm sure it's worse for unusuals."

"Okay. So that's red-group and white-group third-siahrs who should have late-onset unusual status, and everybody else can have it from hatching." He magically adds a list item to this effect onto the chalkboard and glances over the whole thing again. "I like this list. This is a pretty good list. Oh, right, the names thing. What horrible disasters will ensue if third-siahrs can have personal names of arbitrary syllable length?"

"Well, my mother, for a start," says Mial. "Past that, anyone who can get a miracle worker to make them one. I imagine it'll be popular among thudias and nondragon partners of dragons. I would personally be willing to make a third-siahr out of anybody who asked nicely, but if I got flooded with requests I might have to find a better way to systematize than that. Lazarus! Do you foresee any syllable-related problems?"

"I'm not completely sure. I haven't seen any dragonish names change before and I don't quite understand all the parameters. But I think with enough miracle you could just make it that third-siahr personal names can give away repeat syllables. I certainly think you should make it that third-siahr names can accept repeat syllables from anyone."