"I might be biased in favor of the Stormlands - that is where skymages come from - and maybe biased against the Witchlands. But I don't think either government is really bad, the Stormlands are bit too conservative and traditional and Witch-queens are really squandering their capacity to improve the world. What is reseasoning? Being allowed to have children is that complicated?"

"Reseasoning is when you go some place with different seasons and your body adjusts accordingly? Do aliens not have that? And in places where we can't season properly we don't like to live there, the equator and poles and moon arcologies are all like that. If you're diligent and not horribly unlucky you will probably end up able to afford a child, maybe two, but not as many as you want - and some people are lazy or horribly unlucky and then they won't get any."

"No, we don't have anything like that. I wouldn't be surprised if the Witch-queens could do something about seasons. Maybe even skymages could do something. What exactly do they do to your body? I think at this point I must ask... how biological is the need for children? You mention them every other sentence."

"...I'm not sure how to answer that question. I'd - really expect any evolved species to have a drive to have children? But I'm not green - Afen is on the way -"

"We do have a drive to have children, but plenty of people are perfectly happy with just one. Also, could you tell me more about Afen?"

" - he's just the only green I know who'd come right across town in the middle of a snowstorm on my say-so that there's someone present speaking an unfamiliar language, he's not otherwise remarkable or anything."

"Ah, fair enough. It's that hard to make friends outside caste? It sounds... limiting. Also, if you show me a map with his likely route I could make the storm simply stop in the relevant area."

"...I expect he's on the train. It's not that it's hard, exactly - we're married cross-caste, after all - it just doesn't come up very often. And most people of any caste wouldn't rush across town during a snowstorm, even if I knew a hundred greens that'd still be true."

Nod. "Linguistic nerd?"

"Afen? Yes, he's an honorary professor of linguistics at Kistal, teaches these eccentric little seminars you have to speak seven languages to sign up for. I used to do the department scheduling."

"Heh. I see."

Another sharp prick of pain, which he ignores.

"I don't think you quite explained the effects of seasons?"

"We're fertile in the spring, and feel more - springtimey, does that translate?"

"Inclined to reproduce?" Felix tries, "humans are fertile all the time and with a stable desire for reproduction."

"And yet you have fewer children. That's interesting."

"It makes sense evolution-wise. If you are only fertile during a quarter of the year then you'd need a strong imperative to take the opportunity."

She shrugs. "They tried artificial lighting and temperature changes to induce spring in the arcologies or underground or wherever. It didn't work. Magic could perhaps do it."

"This makes it sound like it would be complicated for a skymage to induce a proper season, but not outright impossible if it can be done. Still there could be a chance for witch-queens to work ...maybe directly."

She raises her hand to her hair as if it's a gesture as common and communicative as shaking one's head. "Directly?"

And he gets what it means. "Tell your biology to behave in a certain way instead of changing the environment. Aaand this translation effect is rather thorough. I understood that gesture."

"I don't know if people would want their biology changed. Perhaps some of them. Are translation effects common?"

"Not really, but not unheard of. I was just surprised, this one is rather unobtrusive otherwise, but my culture doesn't really have an equivalent. We don't have castes."

"How strange."

"To be fully accurate, some cultures had or have caste systems, but it's not really a norm in modern times."

"Everywhere in the world has the same system, though there are different details."

"Oh?"