Jude quiets to listen; most of what Mobius is telling him is what he already knows, a reaffirmation of just how complicated the problem is. They will have to meet somewhere in the middle. Mages will need a safe haven, a place to retreat and learn to practice their art safely, while still being held to the standards of every single person in society. They must be protected, and so must the people living around them. That can never happen with full separation, but so many people now still have too-fresh wounds, and there can only be worse things to come if they aren't allowed to heal.

It's a complicated issue, and not for the first time, he wishes he could speak with the elders of his pack about it. They know these problems intimately; they were at the forefront of fighting a battle much like this. Jude was a child who grew up in the weak but warm sunshine of the haven they built.

"You're right," Jude says, of the circles, and the Rifters. "But what happens to mages will matter to us. How fairly they are treated will be our precedent. Especially for those of us with abilities that humans-" he pauses, corrects himself. "That people who aren't us have not grown up with."

Jude pauses, looking down at their joined hands, and cups Mobius's palm between his own. It calms him; in another world it would be where a pulse of what makes him more would radiate out between them. Would bring them both to zero, let them look at this with clear heads.

"Shifters- my people- went through something similar," he says. "Our ability to change isn't the only thing that makes us different."