"I see what you mean," says Mial. "I might disagree on whether Reform Draconic has politics attached in principle, but it certainly seems to have acquired some in practice. However, for... largely coincidental reasons, I think it's unlikely that you're going to find any miracle workers who are keen on original Draconic and its implications. And I am the person designing third-siahrs, and I would find it... troubling to include a switch-to-Draconic option. I am open to being convinced, but you are going to find it a tough sell."

"I speak Reform Draconic now but I still think in English, at least by default," volunteers Lazarus. "There's no reason a transformed third-siahr couldn't continue thinking in their original native language, with Reform Draconic secondary and Draconic equally accessible. Would that alleviate some of your concerns?"

"I don't know about her but I'd hesitate to bring this whole business up with my grandparents if I did it and it came with the language change," says the blue opal. "Whether I was technically thinking in Reform Draconic or not. It might be enough for me to skip it but I'm already a dragon so it's not as big a deal, I guess? I don't know if you care if a lot of people want to do it though."

"There is a very straightforward way to make people less rude to you," mutters Kaylo under his breath.

Mial looks at Kaylo. And smiles slightly, in a not particularly friendly way. And doesn't ask him to repeat himself.

"Piro," hisses the emerald representative. "This is serious."

"I'm sorry," he says, calming himself. "It's just that my daughter-in-law's opinions on answerability to the dragon council are part of why Mial hasn't just made her a dragon and, if not avoided, at least postponed this entire enterprise."

"Answerability to the dragon council is certainly a traditional feature of dragons," says Mial. "Individual third-siahrs might or might not choose to adopt it, and of course it's entirely up to you lot whether or not to let them on your island, I wouldn't dream of trying to put forward an opinion on that question. But in terms of magical rather than political characteristics - yeah, songs seem handy to keep, kicking in at four syllables minimum seems like a reasonable default even when that's not such a significant number... we can maintain line names at two consecutive syllables from a same-gender ancestor, too, I think that's much less of an issue than the personal names... and I don't see any reason to mess with the age thresholds for languages, shifting, or fire, or with the aging rate package as a whole. What else did you mention...?" He looks at the white miracle.

"Not everybody should be able to do that," says the obsidian. "There's already precedent for people without magical names being able to use anything they identify with as a part of their name, and you're fixing the spelter's problem separately anyway. People who don't want to have names shouldn't be giving them out."

"Fair. Okay," says Mial. He notes down the things that third-siahrs are explicitly keeping the same: Namesong available at four syllables and Language and firebreathing kick in at about a month, shifting at about twenty years. "But the repeat syllables thing seems like much less of a problem." The list item goes down as Line names can be assigned by same-gender ancestor using two consecutive syllables (or one repeated in case of extreme scarcity).

Nobody produces any objections at this juncture.

"Regarding thudias and parunias," Lazarus pipes up, "that variation also has to do with levels of dragon magic, so it won't naturally occur with third-siahrs. I think probably the most natural thing to do with third-siahrs is have all of their children turn out to be third-siahrs in a parunia-like way, except for ones they have with other siahrs, who might be parunias instead for dragon magic reasons. ...Although now that I've said that, I definitely want us to pay very, very careful attention to how the offspring of dragons and third-siahrs might turn out, because I am afraid that dragon magic will find a way to make it go horribly wrong if we don't."

"You really don't have a very high opinion of dragon magic," Kaylo remarks.

"Dragon magic is obnoxiously hostile," says Lazarus. "It exists in an amount and if an egg is laid while there's not enough to go around, it either turns out as a shren, or as a silently doomed baby totally outwardly indistinguishable from ordinary dragon babies who will go on to die of not having enough dragon magic before they are a month old unless someone comes along with a miracle and fixes them! The cause of death by old age in siahrs was all of their dragon magic spontaneously draining out and leaving them to die, before I came along and made it stop doing that! Esu exists! Esu exists and shrens exist and siahrs aren't able to shift forms until they're twenty years old! And don't get me started on my opinions about Draconic, because then I will tell you my opinions about Draconic and no one wants that!"

No one shows any sign of wanting that.

"A third-siahr who is also a thudia?" blinks the amethyst miracle.

"Yes. A third-siahr with an extra form that works just as though they had been a thudia of some less complicated non-dragon species."

"Uh," says the copper miracle, "why?"