"Dragons usually don't go in for much nationalism," says Aurin. "Even if we stay in the same place a really long time. It never occurred to me to join the Corenta military, say, because I might decide at some point to pick up my favorite possessions and tuck 'em and fly to Aveha. Aveha's nice, especially in spring. Uncle Avar's got a government job, though - I don't remember your title -"

"I'm in the Imperial Service," says Ivan. "Sort of the done thing for Vor. Do you even have a job?"

"Not like a career. I pick up tour guide work interpreting for foreign tourists who think they're going to teach themselves more than three words of Vansalese and don't get translation spells, sometimes. One time a girl talked me into spending six weeks as a fairground ride only to discover that it was not technically legal for her to pay employees in sexual favors, so I guess that was a job. I help out Mother now and again, I'm pretty good at that but don't want to work for her, might go into some unrelated kind of event planning." At Ivan's headtilt: "She sets up these charity events? Where rich people who don't want to just sign writs of transfer all congregate to give each other excuses to sign writs and show off for each other about how big the writs are. Sometimes she does other things but it's mostly that."