She consults Aitim.

"Don't go to Calado. Oahk Free State is better than Calado but not so nice I'd wholeheartedly recommend it. Cayolee can't possibly be offering that much rainforest... Cene is probably safe enough to visit."

"Does anything bad happen if I only accept the one invitation?"

"People will complain disgruntledly. They're not going to pick a fight with Cene or anything."

"Okay. How do I arrange a visit to Cene?"

"We can do that - they'll want first planet, but Anitam's also going to want first planet if we're supplying and planning rescue operations, they'll probably settle for second."

"I think maybe the reds get first planet."

"I really recommend against that. If there are other planets, even if a particular country hasn't gotten one yet, everyone'll be patient; if the first planet ever is for reds it'll seem like a colossal insulting waste of resources, like lighting money on fire in front of a homeless person, people'll be mad and they'll be less cooperative with sending their reds there. They'll be safe in the rainforest and can take advantage of the time spent somewhere with internet access to learn the things they'll need to manage on their own planet."

"Is this enough rainforest to fit all the reds who might need it?"

"Not if every country expelled their reds but I wouldn't expect most of them to - Anitam's not going to, Voa's not going to, Tapa's not going to, it might be enough to fit everyone else."

"Okay."

"Should I go ahead and talk to the appropriate people about elemental theft?"

"...yeah."

And he takes it to the council - elementals are the ones who can do interplanetary travel, and Penumbra has friends who are currently enslaved and prevented from using their magic, she can't make promises on their behalf but they'd probably look kindly on a country who rescued them, it seems to him that Anitam would be much advantaged by a rescue operation. 

The council agrees.

He writes Kalana Shenla.

Council should be forwarding authorization for an operation to rescue some elementals who can terraform for us. What do you need to know to make that happen?

As much as possible about the layout and terrain, nature of resistance especially magical, nature of exit strategy, likely reception from rescued elementals, and how many we can field from what fallback position.

He goes to visit Maurabel again. "This a good time for rescue operation planning?"

"As good as any."

Email. "Here's what they need to know."

She needs help with some of the words, and then she can draw a school map and start speculating on defenses. "Penumbra can only take people between worlds every now and then and even regular teleportation is expensive but she can go between places that are dark more cheaply and so can regular Shadows if any of those want to help. We could set up over as long as we need to bring in all the soldiers somewhere, and go in at night, and fall back to wherever we set up - in a cave or something. The school elementals know me and I think will cooperate once they can, it'll be harder if we have to try again with more who don't."

"How well does information travel, will elementals in other places hear there was a mass breakout at the mage school -"

"Elementals are used as messengers and translators, so some will. They won't know anything about the intentions of who stole them though."

"And we can't tell them lest some relay it to the slaveowners. All right. Mage school first and then maybe some people rescued there will have information about where else might be tractable."

"Yeah. There might be some elementals checked out, so we won't be able to get all the ones the university owns in one strike. They have several of all the non-hybrids, though. You want Shadow for going to other planets and Air and Earth and Water and maybe Wood and Fire for making planets nice, but the other kinds can be useful too."

"And we're not going to leave anyone a slave because we don't have an immediate need for them ourselves."

"Yeah, I mean if for some reason all the Shadows are checked out when we go in you might want to abort and try again, or go looking for who has them, but if all the Adamants are missing you might not want to do that."