He's back a few hours later, having consulted his brother on schemes to make money by teleporting dishware. (You can sort of communicate in both directions, via writing/carving on the plates in the one direction and by which plates you grab in which order in the other.)

"Hi! The trumpet will grow for me, I checked."

"Of course it will, you have a lovely voice. Did you get voice training -"

"No, just messed around on my own."

"I could try to arrange that if you want - or if you'd rather just get the manumissions faster we could do that, pay for voice lessons once you're free -"

"Either way."

"Okay." And he will sit down with her and play with his musical instruments.

Yay!

She drops by to visit. They let her in. 

" - hi."

"Slaves staying in line? I bet your overseers are beating them extra, don't want to embarrass themselves with a problem coming to your attention when you're new -"

"This how you're planning to spend the next twelve years?"

"Until you tell me to leave."

She sighs. She does not tell her to leave.

"There isn't a way to do it humanely."

"I don't think I've tried to justify myself in those terms. I said I can do good things with the political leverage, not that - not that there's anything mitigating on the other side -"

"You'll think of something else. Let them go and give yourself a couple years to - to think about it, to be stuck and have to come up with ways to get unstuck - and then you'll think of something -"

"The public education thing's looking to come down to one vote." There are three hundred sixteen votes in the Civic Council but there are blocs; there are usually only a few dozen in play, and having a few more of them in hand means you have more flexibility in which other ones you pursue. 

"If it were just that I'd say 'fine, free them at the end of the week' but it's not that. It's twelve years."

"I'll see what I can do to make the conditions better."

"Amait -"

"It has to end, and I can do it."

"You think."

"Yeah."

"Please?"