"Couple dozen, maybe, but that's a single trip, they'd have to wait before they could go back."

"If we rescue all the Shadows in the world how many will that be?"

"I don't know. Hundreds probably."

"And of course many of them will just want to go about their lives and have nothing to do with this." Headshake. "Well, we'll figure something out."

"I hope so. Thanks for helping me pull off the rescue."

"Of course. I am glad it went smoothly and look forward to doing it as many times as needed until there are not elemental slaves."

"Could an artifact be made that does interworld travel?"

"...maybe. I'd need a lot of elementals helping if I could do it at all."

"That'd be the best solution in the long run, but I know you can't rush it."

"I can start thinking about it, though. And things to make air constantly so Airs don't have to just hang out filling up planets."

"I bet they will appreciate not doing that. And if you have a product you have a lot more invisible leeway on things."

"Oh?"

"It's obvious you're not bluffing about planets, and people have something concrete to take home to their superiors."

Nod. "People haven't been trying to do shadow-walking without an elemental, since you can just do it with one, although it takes a lot of practice to steer right. But that one seems harder than something that makes air."

"Once you can do it once is it straightforward to repeat?"

"Uh, sort of. It's a craft, there's still complex steps even if I know what they all are. Easier, definitely."

"I think it'd be an exciting step if you can get it working."

"In the long run you will need more humans. Maybe I should empty a mage orphanage. Except Amentans would probably raise them with that stupid red prejudice. Unless I gave them to reds, which I assume you will tell me would be a disaster even if their adoptees washed their artifacts before they were sold."

"People might conclude it was fine or there might be pollution hysteria or they might try to rescue the poor children from the reds. Humans also might not have it even if raised with it, it's not clear how much it's cultural and how much we've been selected for much stronger disgust reactions as a result of a long history of high-density living."

"Humans mostly pick up stupid things they are raised with."

"Fair enough. You could have a couple elementals terraform some moon and I could send my brother there to found a casteless experimental community and they could be raised there."

"It'd probably be good to start with a moon you can travel to without Shadows anyway, make sure terraforming with elementals even works right."

"Uh huh."

"This won't upset people who are vying for early planets? If I do a moon for an experimental community? - Can reds go there, since it's casteless?"