Sigh. "Thank you." He looks at the pocket everything that has since stopped beeping. "I don't suppose we could get him a dinner invitation once he is out of his emotional coma?"

"I'd be delighted."

"Thank you." Sigh. "I'm going to force feed him ice cream and make him watch the cheesiest romcoms known to both of these worlds. And maybe in a couple of generations he is going to be well again. I accept movie recommendations."

"I can do movie recommendations. That's, uh, a really long time."

"I was being hyperbolic, but the editing thing is kinda of a big deal." Sigh. "Good news, this is at least a way to deal with rogue dreamshapers and we are going to need that eventually. Yay."

" - is there a reason not to just execute them."

"Death is bad? Not all crimes one could commit while a dreamshaper are worth of execution, but might be worth of 'do not trust them with magic'?"

" - I guess. What are you thinking would warrant taking back the magic short of killing people or trying to or amassing a private army or smuggling or something -"

"I didn't give it that much of a thought? Also, you execute people for smuggling?" Pause. "Does it work as a deterrent?"

"White collar crimes with losses in excess of one million ni. Smuggling across international borders can be a problem even with lower numbers because it might start a war or be used for spying."

"Uh, and basically anything that can be construed as 'dreamshaping illegally crossing borders' could be a cause for war because of entirely reasonable paranoia?"

"Yeah exactly. They're not going to be forgiving with dreamshapers, but everyone signing up for it knows that and doesn't expect any different."

Nod nod. "...Would be worthy if we created an... I don't know how to call it. International Dreamshaping Monitoring Bureau. Or something similar, but basically a group of dreamshapers that answers internationally and with the purpose of credibly testify that a dreamshaper didn't violate international borders? So countries that haven't got dreamshapers yet can rely on something besides their neighbors testimonies?"

"Once the existence of dreamshapers is public knowledge, yeah, there should probably be something like that."

"Yeah. Comes with the added benefit that dreamshaper-having countries are less likely to pull something. Less chance of war all around."

"Yeah. And if there is a war and we neutralize all that country's dreamshapers and close all their portals there probably won't be a second war."

Nod nod. "Let's try for no war at all."

"Uh huh."

E-mail from Felix:

Thank you, Isel. I'll be good! Just don't kill anyone!

Of course!

"I'm going to have to tell him that I exist. Through e-mail." He shakes his head. "Is there anything else we need to discuss?"

"I promised the reds it wouldn't happen again. It won't, right? If you see a cop bothering one of them you watch, from a distance, while doing absolutely zero magic, and you call me."

Nod. "We have no reason to do that again. Seeing the cops there really broke any sense of trust he had in you. And when a cop told him to call the authorities he was sure it was a trick somehow."

"On Earth do the police just - back off on a mage's say-so?"

"Not quite like that. I think that back on Earth the situation would've been tenser, but closer to a stalemate? I think they would have made more of an effort to appease Felix, this is entirely for bad reasons, but they wouldn't just turn their backs and return to the job that is clearly irritating the powerful foreign magical nobility. At minimum, they would contact their superiors and get new orders. I think that the fact they didn't do anything came off as... deliberate. Like it was your plan to have unhelpful cops so he would fly away and talk to someone. And cops would know that what Felix was doing was using fire with minimum amount of harm to subdue. At least they would have an expert saying loud and clear that shooting anyone that sustains a controlled wall of fire would get you uncontrolled fire."