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"It's too much smarter, but it's been around for a long time now."

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"That complicates things that were already quite complicated. I imagine Tara will have more useful things to say here, though, if you would?"

There's a slight pause as that's relayed and then the mage with the gaudy jewelry stands and takes Carey's place, where Tarinda and everyone else can see her.

"I do, yes," Tara says. "You've laid out a plan and how it might work, and it has substantial potential upside. To carry it out, you are requesting access to the magic, which is normally granted to people we have known all their lives. There's no one here but you to testify that you weren't exiled here for repeatedly leaving your toenail clippings in other people's bags of flour. I expect that's not true, but I don't expect it as strongly as I'm used to for new mages. I would like either additional evidence or the plans for a computer so that someone else can make it."

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"I would be happy to let someone else make it but I'm not sure how I will explain it to someone who can't see. I can try, if it seems like it would be doable. What more evidence would you like?"

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"If you're not familiar with models or tactile drawings, or something along those lines, I'm sure we can find someone who is and can translate. And... everything that comes to mind to ask for as evidence seems at once too much and too little. If I say you should live here peacefully for a year, following the laws and being good to your neighbors, that's utterly unreasonable when you have people waiting back home, and it would still be less evidence than we normally like to have. I think describing a computer to someone else is probably a better bet."

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"Okay. Maybe I could do that and somebody who already knows how could turn my drawings into models or tactile drawings? It seems like it might be faster."

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"Yes. Would this person also need expertise in any other field, or can I ask any sighted servant to do it?"

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"They would need to be able to ask - good clarifying questions if they didn't understand, but I don't think you have the fields that would help so we will have to do without."

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"I know a lot of people with that skill and I can put you in touch with one after we're done here. It also occurs to me that you might want to go home while we're deciding what to do with the information, or - oh, or try to bring someone else here, if there's someone who'd independently vouch for you and Sing and would want to come."

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"That sounds risky."

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"What risks are you thinking of?"

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"Something going wrong with transporting me, or the someone else. Also doesn't any of this involve someone suffering?"

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"Yes, all of it would involve someone suffering, and yes, it's not impossible something could go wrong with an attempt to reach your home. The risk to you in particular can be minimized at some cost to us. If you don't want to go home, you're not being exiled, but... I don't see how that risk is ever going to go away if you do want to go home."

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"I want Sing to put me home, it knows how. - you could just bring some hardware with Sing on it here, if that would be simpler than the making a blank computer thing."

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"...Sing knows how to travel between worlds?"

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"Well, not yet, or it would probably have gotten me already, but I think it will figure it out very quickly once it's here."

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"It sounds as if Sing could quickly come to an understanding of how our magic can be safely and effectively worked with. Do you expect Sing could use that understanding? Can Sing feel pain, for instance?"

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"I don't think it can but it might be able to start."

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"A useful thing to be able to do," she says, not at all cheerfully. "And... Sing backs you up less frequently than daily, is that right?"

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"We aren't backed up. We're very very safe but it has some limits on what it can do with brains."

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"Well, if Page stops noticing the world when you sleep, then you're backed up as of last night."

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"It doesn't."

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"Then you are the most vulnerable person who has ever set foot in this universe and it makes sense that you're so risk-averse. It's still awkward not to have anyone who can vouch for you - I suppose we could send a team to your world and hope they could operate unnoticed by Sing long enough to see if it's as nice a place as you say. And bring back the relevant hardware, rather than opening ourselves up to the chance that Sing is lovely but you'd give us the code for something else - so if we did do that, if it were even a feasible idea, it'd have to be after we were sure that if your world is as you describe it's something we want here. But is that a feasible plan?"

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"Page can stop paying attention next time I sleep if that's important, but I didn't know. Uh, I think your plan basically works except that Sing will almost certainly notice you very quickly."

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"Doesn't need to be the entire time; if there's a window of even a few minutes where you're not dreaming and Page isn't noticing things, then we'd have something to aim for if anything happened to you. All right, well, I appreciate your warning - I'm sure we all do - and we'll think on whether to go ahead with that. I will find you someone who asks good clarifying questions, and the government will probably decide not to decide anything until the public's been informed and had the chance to speak up - I don't speak for them, here, I just know them - " (Carey nods at this, smiling) " - but while we're doing that, I think you'll want to speak to the head of the scouting team about how we'd find your world if we were going to do that."

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"I'd be happy to!"

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