"You can maybe get the reds out but that doesn't solve Biyan's pollution problem."

"There ought to be some way to magically purify things. I mean, water, I can do water, so can Waters, but I mean something that will let people do stuff without freaking out."

"I don't think I understand the - thing that magic can do - well enough to guess. Can it vanish garbage or something -"

"...a Fire could burn it..."

"Can a Fire do, like, fire which avoids harming a person."

"Kind of. Their halos can be like that - like how they look like they're on fire but don't light up the carpet."

"The case could probably be made to some theologians that that suffices for decontamination, depending what exactly it does, but - there aren't many of you and you aren't going to want to do chores all the time..."

"Is handling garbage actually that complicated? I don't understand why training people takes so long."

"Garbage no - I mean, you have to learn to operate the trucks, but it's a weeklong course, not this - protracted tragedy - but maintaining the sewage systems has a lot to it and preparing bodies for burial does too and there's a lot of turnover because non-reds are likely to get too grossed out."

"If there were easier travel between worlds maybe they could hire humans, we're harder to gross out." Sigh.

"People would end up seeing them as reds, I worry. Still might be an improvement. Maybe if you're not decent to your humans they just wouldn't have kids at all."

"Maybe. And like, some humans are magic, watch out."

"If reds were magic people wouldn't treat them better, they'd just panic and massacre them. It might stop people from seeing the humans as red in the first place."

"And we could avoid the generational thing."

"Uh huh. Biyan might be far enough along in the transition that it won't be a catastrophe."

"Well, we can't actually bring that many humans here."

"I think the way to do it is to get out the kids and then immediately contact the government and say the aliens dropped in to check on the kids, saw them being tortured, and took them somewhere safe. The aliens recommend, so as to avert further violence, that Biyan immediately escort all the adult reds out of their country. They think the reds are insane and evil; they shouldn't want them to have magic allies. Then maybe have a couple elementals around to observe if they don't mind doing that."

"Think that'd work?"

"- I think it'll get some of them out as opposed to none? I don't think it saves them all. I don't know how to save them all."

"I'll ask the elementals if any of them want to supervise. They aren't going to speak a word of whatever they speak in Biyan."

"They're just supposed to look scary, they wouldn't need to."

"That they can do."

A Fire and a Lightning and two Ices and an Adamant will go look scary!

They can book a flight.

Isel lets Anitami reds know that it might be good for Biyan's reds to have a heads-up that if anything has happened to the kids, which she of course wouldn't know anything about personally, Biyan will lose its hostages tomorrow. And there'll be people waiting in the rainforest.

Who's going to be waiting in the rainforest?

Aliens with healing powers. And possibly someone to take pictures, not that she expects the torture of red children to particularly shock the conscience but she at least wants it on the record.