Truth's Sharp Edges
Eleventh Day of the Seventh Month 293 AC
You take a drink of wine, knowing that arguing is thirsty work, and unless you miss your guess there is a great deal of that to be done. "That depends entirely on what it would mean for you to be awakened in full. I have heard stories of the Fae, I have seen them work their wills upon the world, have made bargains with their kind and been called on more than once to defend those who cannot do so for themselves from their advances."
"And how many times have you been compelled to defend mortals against their own kind?" The lady's smile is an arch and secretive thing. "Cruel and capricious lords abound. In fact, a little bird once told me a tale about a bee and a traveler unlooked for."
A bee... It takes you a moment to recall your first journey to Crackclaw Point and having to uproot an entire village to keep them from being killed over some idiocy about a magic bee. Seeing Lord Paxter's curious look and knowing most of the tale has long since been told in rumor and hearsay you see no reason not to explain that part of it, making your disgust over the sheer folly perfectly clear.
Some of the younger men chortle at the notion of 'stealing a whole village' but the Lord of the Arbor merely looks thoughtful and at the end proclaims it simply 'a noble deed'.
As good a bridge as any to the point you are about to make. Meeting Dusk-Dancer's bright gaze, you return to the matter of sleeping kings and lost crowns: "You say that with this crown returned your Lord could be awakened, that his presence would root you in the world and help you understand what it has become. How would that aid the people of the Reach? Would it defend them from the nature of the darkling creatures that are as much a part of any Court as you? You would not have come so far only to be bound more tightly to your words."
"More tightly?" the fey emissary shakes her head, hair falling in artful curls around her shoulders. "Waking or dreaming our word binds us just as much, but with the crown the pacts we make are more likely to be understood and thus followed. Surely one as experienced in trade as you knows that it is best for the contract to be written in a tongue both sides can understand?"
The Reacher lords are nodding along to the wise words of the fey. Wise she may be and cunning besides, but not so much that you cannot catch the evasion for what it is. "I ask again, my lady, what of the dark ones?"
"Most of those men count wicked, the hunters, the blood-drunk, do not answer to the Court of Stars," she replies. "As for others who might wish harm upon men..." Raising her hands in mock surrender the lady admits, "Aye, they would plot more skillfully, but by the agreements forged with my kindred men will be better able to see through their trickery. I do not claim it will be all light and honey, only more good than harm for all of us."
Having caught the omission you press: "If the Crown was to be returned, how would the Lord's presence change your Court from how it is now? Would it bind you closer to the laws of the people of the land, not yours, but theirs? Would it make you stronger in the world, to enforce your own? You offer words, Lady, but they hold little substance."
It is no easy thing to guess the mind of a being who merely wears the guise of humanity for a mask, to see the truth in the thoughts of the deathless fey, but for just a moment you do, the cold light in her gaze flickers in frustration at being pushed into unveiling that which she would rather keep hidden: "It would make fey pacts stronger, more enduring, but also guarantee a means of fair appeal, for the Lord's nature is to be just, as recognized by all involved."
What do you reply?
[] Refuse to ever hand over the crown
[] Take the crown to keep against the day you can negotiate with the fey for its return
[] Allow the fey to recover the crown
[] Write in
OOC: A little short, but it's the nature of these discussion parts.
