"I'm seventeen. ...twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen. Eighteen nineteen twenty."

"I'm eighteen."

"...okay..."

"Do humans and elementals age the same -"

"Elementals don't age."

" - how do new elementals start?"

"They - coalesce - they don't have parents."

"How interesting. Humans have parents?"

"Yeah, we do."

"And humans age and be parents and die?"

"Yes."

"Amentans also. We live four tens years."

"Forty. That's not very long."

Shrug. "If we had more worlds people would want longer."

"They don't want longer now?"

"This world has - as many people as it can feed. Wanting longer now is like wanting to fly."

"Wow."

"Your world does not have as many people as it can feed?"

"I don't think very many people go hungry..."

"Do the people-who-tell-people-what-to-do tell them only two children?"

"...no."

"Here they do. Not just Anitam every country. Otherwise people go hungry and die, or they - go to the next country and make space for themselves -"

"...people go to other countries sometimes..."

"No other country will say 'yes, we take you', they all have as many people as they can feed too. If one country is telling their people more children, they mean eventually for people to die to have space for the children."

"Oh."