>>5878768“I know that the central Council of Elders in Iternagreyn has cut off ties with Hawksong and its allies,” you acknowledge the reality thus far unspoken, “but what of other human nations outside of their domains?”
“The Southmen treat far too readily with demons to fully trust,” Elder Venphrya says.
“Not ‘treat’, exactly,” your mother delicately inetrrupts. “They bind and control them… or try to.”
“a dangerous game, and one that the devils of the Seven Hells all too often win,” the Elder notes dourly.
“What of the Easterlings, then?” you ask, recalling how fond Izirina had always been of those exotic cultures growing up, and tales of the fairy spirits said to openly live among them. “Surely they’re potential allies against… That is, in our shared endeavours to make a better world?”
“Some of them CAN be,” the Elder acknowledges carefully, “but the Men of the East are still MEN, Ezreal… Still, as you say, ‘works-in-progress’. And the spirits they deal with… Some are fey, some are demonic, and their philosophy pays precious little heed to which is which. Their fairy courts are… Fallen.”
“Unseelie?” you ask, concerned at the prospect of an entire area of the continent full of such terrors as you have lately tangled with.
“Not… precisely. Or maybe, yes, that is as good a word as any.” The Elder hesitates, struggling to put the problem to words. “Theya re not evil, not violent. Not all of them. We treat with them, and they are kin to us, but they are… Not like our Princess of the New Moon, nor like the True Fey whom you learned from as a young boy. All disciples of the Bonum Chaoticum value freedom, of course, but they… They pay heed to no authority if they can help it, and they mingle and meddle where they ought not to.”
“What about other allies?” you ask. “Dwarves, halflings, gnomes… Beastmen, that sort of thing?”
“It’s the Beastmen of the East who I was referring to ,” the Elder notes. “As for the Little Men… They live like the Men you are familiar with. And that’s really all that dwarves and their kin are: men of the deep and high places, of the islands and isolated spaces. But still Men.”
“That’s not how the dwarves see it,” you note, “or the humans. And anyway… They live much longer, don’t they? And isn’t the Mountain King of the dwarves a member of the Bonum Chaoticum.”
“He is NOT,” the Elder states emphatically.
“But…” you pause. “He isn’t a member of the Bonum Legale. I know that much.”
“It’s… Complicated,” your mother amends, drawing the brief ire of Venphyra. “A story for another time.”
