Very well-done. Your Winky is clearly a canonical elf, yet you don't condescend to her or make her "cute" -- she's a real, thinking being with a perceptive understanding of her world even as she (mostly) accepts her place in it. Like the other reviewers, I love the glimpses into elf culture and history. My favorite lines: Once words was out of a mouth, they was gone. Head-words you could take out again, and change around, and that was much better. Poor wizards, thought Winky. Always letting their words go. The whole "head-word" notion is excellent. (I'm with Winky on the idea that marriage is about property rights and establishing paternity -- very bright, that elf /g/)
And of course I love your sharp, kind, no-nonsense Minerva, with her "beloved" (which melted my heart; it's the term my partner and I use) and her in-character speech patterns. I also like that you don't make Barty a cardboard villain -- he's a harsh man in many ways, but a complex one. It can be a temptation, in politically-oriented stories, to make those who disagree with us be either evil or stupid, but life doesn't really work that way. I like the more nuanced view you show. Barty and Minerva can seriously disagree and yet be friends of a sort, or can at least respect each other.