[ Small, wry laugh. ] That's a pretty good description of our reality here. I was born in a city that was larger than Hadriel by at least a couple of tens of thousands of people, but it was impossible to avoid anyone there, either.

[ Oh, but who doesn't lie about matters in which deep emotion is involved? It's a very human thing to do.]

Ouch. You came through Customs? I understand the concept. Once my brothers and I had established our own lands, I took over a lot of the administrative work. I appointed a few of my soldiers to inspect any goods that came to us up the rivers by boat or across the hills by cart. No one paid taxes on trade goods, but it was a good idea to make sure that what we received was what we had paid for. Is your Customs anything like that?