"There's nothing wrong with my height," Bel said, a bit peevish. "Perfectly adequate for tight quarters and requires less food." He was making a note to keep this guy away from Barcus.

"And that, my new friend, is one other reason I do things like talk to people. I know what the obvious threats are -- there's a bulletin board with people asking us to do jobs for them, and some of those are 'deal with this threat'. I don't yet know exactly how one feeds into another, to consider something proactive. Preferably before another disaster. Other than the bulletin boards, a woman named Lioriley is keeping notes on what we've learned."

Bel is slightly worried about introducing them, because this guy seems to have prejudices that are not as obvious as the ones Bel is used to, meaning he can't predict reactions, and Lioriley, while the nicest person he's met, is also incredibly magical in ways that might startle people. (Of course, between that and her husband, he suspects she won't have a problem with handling a new visitor, but Bel also generally likes Lioriley and would rather not cause her extra problems.)