"A long time from the mortal perspective," he acknowledges. "Do you object to hosting an embassy, then?"

"Perhaps you could put something up at the edge of your domain," suggests Coin. "Being underground we are somewhat constrained in space suitable for unexpected purposes."

"Would anyone visit it?"

"Assuming you continue to respect our borders and assume a minimally threatening posture it's certainly possible."

"I fully intend to continue respecting your borders," he says. "How threatening you find me while I go about my business inside my own empire is not under my control; I have learned that through extensive experience."

"There are more and less threatening ways to go about your business. So far you've been projecting a public face such that our plan A to keep you from encroaching on District Thirteen was to send a polite intern to the surface to ask nicely, but if you maintain or expand the Capitol's capacity to make war, disrespect our security precautions in any way, or otherwise indicate that the continued sovereignty of your neighbors is not a priority for you, you will begin to seem threatening."

"I find the Capitol's methods for making war both distasteful and unnecessary," he says. "On my home planet I maintain a military whose main practical purpose is disaster relief and escorting diplomats, because no one has tried to invade my empire in many centuries; I anticipate something similar here, but I will not even need them to escort diplomats since I am acting as my own ambassador and require no escort."

"Noted."

"The continued sovereignty of my neighbours is a high priority," he adds. "It is my sincere hope that I never again encounter a country so disastrously run that I feel compelled to conquer it for its people's sake; until I heard of Panem, I thought that I never would."

"By all accounts the people of Panem are mostly pleased with this development. District Thirteen, however, has been operating separately since the initial rebellion, and our people are provided for without child sacrifice or vast social stratification of the sort I assume you objected to in Panem. We are not in the market for a regime change and appreciate your understanding of that fact."

"I did object to the child sacrifice. And the mass starvation. Needless suffering offends me. It is good to hear that you don't have that sort of problem."

"Do note, however, that I don't consider you entitled to conduct inspections to check up on our adherence to external standards, and if you tried it would make it clear that you'd be treating us as a colony-in-waiting rather than a real peer."

"Then it seems we may understand each other."

"Yes."

"Is there anything else you wanted to discuss?"

"Not at the moment."

Kirovalin follows Tulip.

Tulip leads him back all the way up to the surface and over to where his biome begins.

And off he goes into his biome. The edge is, by this time, very clearly marked by a tangled hedge of berry bushes with occasional gaps.

When he has made some progress into his domain Tulip turns around and goes home.