"There's about thirteen billion Amentans."

She blinks.

"Wow, that's a lot. I can see why you need more space! I think the total population of Corth is less than a twentieth of that."

"Ours used to be smaller, but we've gotten better at medicine than we used to be, the world has become more peaceful, and we only instituted population controls about forty years ago."

"Population controls?" 

She's still not paying all that much attention.

"If everyone could have as many children as they wanted they'd have an average of five, and start pretty early in their lives," says Shiresk. "So they aren't allowed to do that, since we don't have the space. Credits good for permission to have a child are auctioned, in most countries; some do it differently."

"Motu have a higher average than that, and they haven't run out of space yet..." Puna says, confused. 

"Oh, but you said medicine is better, and your world looks safer in other ways as well. No magic means no undead or dragons. So if an Amentan has five children, they'll probably all go on to have their own, but only about half of motu children survive to adulthood." 

"...what are dragons and... undead...?"

"Dragons are giant flying lizards that breathe fire or ice or poison gas or acid or lightning," Puna explains.

"They can talk, and some of them are really smart," she adds, for completeness.

"Undead are either the spirits or the bodies of dead people, walking around and interacting with the world. They happen when someone is cursed to stay around rather than going to their afterlife, or brought back by a necromancer, and large numbers of undead in a particular area can cause other corpses to rise as well. They're usually violent, and most of them are really stupid and are basically puppets or echoes rather than still being people."

"That's horr- Kish, fly the helicopter, dammit," the Prince says, snapping at the pilot when the vehicle wobbles alarmingly.

"I'm sorry your eminence," says the pilot. The copter stabilizes.

"- horrifying," the prince concludes, "can they be handled effectively - is there any chance any may come through the portal - have you or the headwoman touched any -"

Puna blinks.

"There haven't been undead anywhere near Otara since before Wikolia was born, so I don't know why she'd have touched one. I wouldn't have left the portal unguarded if there were undead around, that would be unfriendly."

She has to think about herself. "I've probably touched undead at some point but not with this avatar, I made it specially for today. Why?"

"We prefer to be extremely careful not to touch the dead, or things that have touched the dead," explains the prince delicately. "If the avatar is - new, that's fine."

"Oh, okay."

More contemplation.

"Wikolia has children and grandchildren - that's what her piercing means - so she's almost definitely touched at least one dead baby in her life. She'll have washed since then, and I don't think you actually touched her directly, but is that enough to be a problem?"

"If she washed she's all right, we have processes for things like that. If she made a habit of it we would have to dig up some of the beach sand where she was and discard it."

"Weird," is Puna's opinion of these precautions.

"And, uh, why would she have made a habit of touching dead people? Is that something people do here?"

"- oh, uh, various occupations involve contact with dead people."

Puna makes a face.

"That doesn't sound like a very nice job, if you all hate doing that sort of thing," she says.

"How do you get anyone to do it?"

"Well. Someone has to, and there's a caste that specializes in doing the things someone has to do that aren't ever going to be popular in their own right. Reds."

She calls up her little row of illusion Amentans again: blue green yellow grey orange purple. No red. The blue is a tiny Shiresk and the purple is a miniature copy of the pilot. The grey is modelled on one of the fishergreys she first met.

She adds a figure with blood-red hair to the end of the line. 

"When I asked the fishergreys to explain the castes," she says slowly, "they didn't mention reds. Why not?"

"People avoid thinking about them because thinking about them is very much like thinking about their work."

"You don't even like thinking about it?" Puna exclaims, equal parts incredulous and sympathetic.

"...Should I stop asking you about this?" she adds hesitantly. "And is there anything else I should avoid talking about?"

"It's not a subject I'd care to linger over except insofar as if undead are ever likely to approach the portal we need to know immediately. Ah, the other things reds traditionally handle are sewage, garbage, and each other."

"Alright. I won't talk about those things again without asking first," she promises, "and I'll only ask if it's important."

She goes back to staring out of the window at the scenery.

"Thank you."

Some time passes in silence.

"...Is there anything else I need to know before we land?"

Just asking the question seems to revive her spirits a little, and she follows it with several more. "Where will we land? Will anyone be there to meet us? Are there rules or safety procedures for landing that I should know about?"

"We're going to land at the palace helipad. My mother and some of her staff will be there; other people might too, they may not have all decided for sure yet. Just don't hop out of the helicopter till it's settled completely on the ground."