They appear in midair, visible out of a few thirtieth-floor apartments.
One starts to fall. The other catches her by the arm, flings out - wing-shapes of light - and slows her, spiraling down until they're at street level.
"Thanks. I want to give the elementals a chance to settle in a bit more before I start pestering them about planets."
"They're in favor in principle. I might send some back to go around on their own - if I've got their amulets they can't be recaptured - and spread word, so others know -"
"They can't be recaptured but other stuff could happen. I'd worry. It's probably best though."
"They'll probably get into fights. They could be hurt or trapped or scared or tricked."
"Could do a setup so they carry little microphones and can hear if the others get into trouble."
"That might be good. At least until they get into a fight with a much bigger group."
"To get to other planets, Shadows are going to need to know just where they are."
"And then they can see what they can do. It might be hard for Airs to actually give a whole planet air."
"We know how to do arcologies - uh, little bubbles to live in and from which to direct terraforming outwards."
"Shadows can't move that many people. You have so many. And I'm not sure they can do seasons, I don't know how those work."
"Yeah, it won't do everything for population pressure here, but it'll be amazing for the people who can go. If you can't move all the reds what are you planning to do about them?"
"Not sure. If elementals can do seasons maybe they can do them in the rainforest."