<I am not sure they'll handle you gracefully.>

"Yeah, I'm not either, the other two Andalites who landed on us decided pretty much immediately to abandon their home and people in favor of the highest bidder and nothing else I heard made it sound like that was really dumb of them because it's so great there."

<That actually sounds to me like a pretty confusing thing for them to do. But most of our interactions with aliens have gone poorly and it's not a trait the council is especially selected for.>

"Yeah, she explained she'd be committing treason as soon as she resumed doing business anywhere else and why. It was something about having to hide her sister's executive function disorder."

<That sounds like a terrible idea that might end with another war.>

"Well, I'm thinking of diversifying my activities now that we can maybe find more planets with magic, so maybe I can fix that."

<I hope that works.>

"Do you want to point me at anything else before I wave for a pickup?"

<Should we be looking for a human one of him?> He gestures at Kefin.

"If you should it does not seem I am destined to help you much with that today, but I can tell you that based on past trends your family'll match out to a few degrees of relation and there is some reason to believe Bella has to run into him. They're British, on the other Earth, but so's Miranda and she's also browner than Bella, so don't put too much weight on that. But Caranth said one of his morphs resembles Aaron and Kantil and another looks like Merenre so you might be able to go off that."

<Huh, all right. Thank you.>

"You're welcome!"

She starts waving at her presumed observer for a pickup. "Hey, aim five miles north-northwest of here!"

Someone appears.

"Thanks, I appreciate the ride. Take us home?" She leans on Kefin.

Off they go.

"That was so unsettling!"

<I'm still not entirely convinced it's not some elaborate trick but I can't imagine to what end.>

"Whoever she was talking to in fact blew up the Blade ship!"

<Could have faked it using some magic we don't know about but at some point we're denying we can know...anything...about anything...>

"Yeah. But that seems surreal more than unsettling, it's her that's unsettling."

<I am glad you aren't addicted to strange drugs.>

"Yeah me too. Though if the whole story wasn't complete bullshit I suppose it's nice to know that I would if it came up."

He swishes his tail irritably.

<I guess we need to figure out why there's a Yeerk resistance.>

"I guess. I mean, the population of Yeerks is large enough that if they vary at all..."

<Yes, but I don't know if these ones want... a different Yeerk faction running the same war the same way, or something more convenient for us. I guess they're probably the most convenient faction that stood a shot but they still might well kill us if we just show up.>