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“What in the world are you thinking, Your Majesty?!”
There was a smack of an open palm hitting the tabletop, and the various members of the royal council frowned at one another as if to say: This again? The expression was out of place on the faces of clerics who were administering a tournament held in offering to the many and great deities.
The one who had raised his voice was a handsome knight of the Supreme God’s halls, his neck bedecked with the symbol of his deity.
This youth had been full of fervor for the running of the tournament, and no one necessarily resented him for it. Young men ought to burn with passion for their ideals. If he was striving to overcome challenges and obstacles, for that matter, why not help him?
But this was going too far.
“Using Sense Lie upon our visitors from the underground empire? That’s discrimination against dark elves!”
How many times was this now?
Not just how many times across the course of the council’s meetings, although there was that. This was the fifth time today.
He was testing the patience of the various representatives who had come on behalf of their temples. Only the young king showed no sign of fatigue in the face of the stalled meeting. He merely replied, “I’m not saying dark elves are evil. Only that there’s a possibility of spies coming from the underground empire.”
“Please don’t try to talk past this, sir!”
You’re the one talking past things! thought King’s Sister, who for reasons mysterious to her had been made the representative from the Temple of the Earth Mother. She fought back a yawn.
Dark elves weren’t evil? Sure, anyone with a bit of education knew that. Ever since the legendary dark elf ranger had first blazed the path, decent dark elves had been plentiful in the Four-Cornered World. But that had no bearing on the threat posed by the dark elves’ underground empire. They were biding their time, looking for any chance to strike.
Thus it was the underground empire that was dangerous, not dark elves. Even a child could understand that.
“I must say, you seem to be suggesting that we shouldn’t allow dark elves in the tournament at all,” King said.
“Only because at this moment, it would be as good as putting them in the stocks for public ridicule! It would be discourteous to allow them to appear on the grounds under the circumstances!”
Wouldn’t that be exactly the opposite of what you’re actually saying, then? King’s Sister thought disinterestedly. She uttered, “Hrmf” as she only half managed to stifle the next yawn. They say dark elves are just as gorgeous as other elves…
For better or for worse, she had yet to meet one herself. She’d only ever seen them in picture books. They had skin as dark as night and lithe bodies that reminded her of predatory animals.
During some unpleasant events that she mostly preferred not to remember, King’s Sister had gained a friend from among the ancient high elves. She seemed as lovely and delicate as a fairy, her beauty at once like and deeply unlike that of the dark elves.
Oh, but…
She seemed to remember a female elf in the frontier town, the one where the dungeoneering contest had been held, who had been hard-edged and lean. She’d caught a glimpse of her arguing with a female wizard about something.
That was what it came down to. Your race was just something you were born with, another starting stat. She could obviously agree that dark elves weren’t inherently evil. That was a laudable thing to think.
But at the rate he’s going, this knight is going to end up arguing that the underground empire itself isn’t even evil!
Dark elves aren’t evil, so their underground empire can’t possibly be, the argument would go. Not that dark elves themselves would probably give a flying fig what humans made of their history. They were undying people who hailed from the Age of the Gods. They were different from short-lived humans in every way.
“We need to join hands with the dark elves and live in harmony. You must understand that!” the knight was saying.
“I do, and I have no objection to that statement,” King replied.
Despite the vast gulf between humans and dark elves, this young paladin insisted on getting into a shouting match over every little point. “This is wrong, that has to be corrected”—always in the name of justice. It started to wear very thin after a while.
King’s Sister was growing tired of just sitting and listening. Besides, at this point, the meeting would never be over. So she marshaled her resolve and, in an attempt to get a word in edgewise amid the tirade taking place under the guise of reasonable argument, said, “Um…”
The paladin rounded on her, his eyes still blazing with righteous indignation.
“Erk!” King’s Sister said. But she couldn’t let herself be silenced now.
I’m not scared of him.
At least, he wasn’t any more frightening than the goblins in the Dungeon of the Dead or the lumps of flesh she’d encountered beneath the frontier town. All right, so maybe it wasn’t very “polite” to compare him to those things!
“There’s something I’d like to ask on behalf of several of the temples here.” Yes, something to ask. She coughed sweetly, then screwed up her courage and said, “Why do you feel the images of the Earth Mother need to have their wings covered?”
“The Earth Mother is our god, not that of the birdfolk. It’s disrespectful to them to put wings on her.”
“It’s what?” King’s Sister blurted out before she could stop herself.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say that…
Fair enough; maybe there were people who didn’t like it. But then there were also plenty of birdfolk who followed the Earth Mother. The paladin said “our,” apparently meaning humans, but the Earth Mother didn’t belong to humans alone. King’s Sister was so confused she felt like there must have been a question mark floating over her head.
“If it’s a matter of respect,” she said, “I should think hiding or painting over the wings is far more disrespectful…”
“May I take it, then, that the Temple of the Earth Mother has no interest in being considerate of the birdfolk?”
“No, you may not.” She was about to add that wasn’t the issue, but she swallowed the words.
Now the paladin appeared to take this as agreement (how convenient). He gesticulated vigorously, as if delivering a real lecture, and continued loudly: “The clergy are altogether too unmindful! Consider the disgraceful outfits worn for the performance at the opening ceremony!”
“You dare refer to our deity’s battle vestments as disgraceful…?! Unbelievable!”