Sigh. "If we had less resources then I think we'd just take them to another planet, give you robots, and hope that after they'd been gone for a while you were - more palatable allies. If we didn't have resurrection then people might want to, you know, put the torturers and murderers on trial ourselves, so I guess it's a good thing we've got that."

"It seems - not like the behavior of new friends to try people for things that weren't illegal when they did them."

"I should probably not get into this. We do have the resources we have, we're not going to hold anyone accountable for atrocities you committed under scarcity, these aren't the kind of conditions that make people their best selves.

But if for some reason we'd had to choose whether to be allies and friends with the reds or the clean Amentans, uh, they're a lot more sympathetic and indescribably less of a diplomatic liability. So. Yeah. If it'd come to that, we wouldn't be friends."

Soyok sighs. "I will probably be able to warn you if anyone marches on the property before shots are fired."

"Great." She pokes the television.

Computer. But it has TV available, domestic and foreign. Soyok leaves her alone.

She hangs out in the guest room watching television on the computer. 

Vanda Nossëo sends Calado a complaint about the kidnapping of their emissaries.

They are sorry! They are not sorry at all. They didn't harm them. They volunteer to have the perpetrators shot.

They are actually requesting extradition for trial in Vanda Nossëo. They understand that kidnapping is not very illegal in Calado but they take misconduct towards their emissaries very seriously.

Are they sure they wouldn't rather have them shot? They can have the greys but not the senator. The senator but not the greys. They can't have them at all!

They are very sure that they're requesting extradition of all involved parties and no shooting at all. Calado need not comply but it'll be a barrier to further diplomatic relations.

They didn't want further diplomatic relations anyway.

"What an interesting country."

       "I feel bad for the people."

"Yeah, but what can you do?"

       "Probably a lot of things if we're willing to expend stupid amounts of resources on it."

"...I'm listening."

Someone asks Elendil about the going price for one-off rings of teleport.

They're pricey, wizards being a bit scarce, why?

Uh, there's a country of people who would probably mostly choose to leave, but their government can't be negotiated with because it's, uh, really really bad at its job, and it would be great to give them the option of leaving. What share of people can get good enough to make them, and how long does it take?

Why do they want to do this with rings and not teleporters?

Going and taking people feels a lot more provocative than just giving them the ability to, if they see fit, leave. Also people will shoot the teleporters, or knock them unconscious and try to figure out their secret, or try taking them hostage, or try taking other people hostage to get favors from them -

"It's possible that all of the people who'd be ordered to do those things would, ah, also rather leave?"

"Oh, I'm sure they would, but if they're not coordinated or if there are just a couple positioning for a spot among those who stay -"

Well, the rings will be pretty steep, they're not very introductory material. Unless they want them in a few years.

They will keep it in mind if Calado is still disaster-ing along in a few years. Does anyone from a functioning state have advice on whether it's possible to productively operate in Calado.

Oh, sure, you just have to learn your way around, it's kind of a political maze.

The problem is that they cannot learn their way around if they will be kidnapped even flying near the country and there will be zero cooperation with investigating such kidnappings. You kind of need a minimum level of assurance that it's illegal to kidnap you before you can start learning your way around a country.

Well, yes, aliens are a special case.

So there's just no real way to productively interact with Calado.

Not for aliens and directly, probably.

Fine. 

Vanda Nossëo arrests the people who kidnapped their citizens. They do this with invisible teleporters; it is probably very confusing to the targets.