“It does its best to appear benevolent but it is a bit hypocritical isn’t it? I’m afraid I’m not very learned in the Chant or what sorts of lessons they are trying to spread. But I hear it sometimes on the street and there doesn’t seem to be much said about tolerance. I suppose that’s why the elves that do choose to live among humans are treated as the lowest form of society. It’s sad, actually, what has happened to them as a people. But I can’t admit to knowing much about them in reality. Where I grew up we didn’t have any elves either. Perhaps some of the villagers would have held the same prejudices.”
She had to laugh then, and smiled. “I guess I sound blasphemous often enough myself. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, so long as they aren’t mentioning them in front of someone with power who disagrees, right?” She smiled. “In any case, I certainly wouldn’t report you for anything you said to a new friend over a bottle of ale.” She shrugged easily, taking a sip of said beverage.
“Faer and Jaden?” She nodded as she easily changed subjects, thinking momentarily about another half a sandwich. “I’ve met them, though they are both pretty quiet young men. They seem very nice though. But it must be hard to be flung from that family feeling into a whole other world… away from everything you know. At least they have one another, I suppose? And almost everyone I’ve met so far seems very welcoming.” She wrinkled her nose at the bit about trees. She’d heard that herself too, of course, but was glad they hadn’t actually run across any. How did one kill a tree? She wielded a sword, not an axe.
“I only know a little bit about the traditions of dogs and warriors. But it seems to be a fairly special thing if you actually have a Mabari companion. Is this true?” She thought briefly of the two men she’d met who had Mabari. Coan and Cormac were both very different men, from apparently different backgrounds. Their dogs were also quite different creatures.
As Dee’s voice drifted over to her, talking about families, parents and loss… those who never experienced the love of a mother or father, but those who did and lost them, it was like an arrow to her heart. As if Dee had known the very thing to say that might send her mind reeling back into the past. Of course she’d been building up to this point for some time now; constantly dropping into long moments of silence, lost in thought when she was left alone. Sometimes she looked at the others; like Falina or Signy or Rho, and felt a maternal affection for them that made her think of her own mother. She would think of her parents and how she had never grieved for everything she had lost. She had simply tucked them away, as if they had never existed. They hadn’t deserved that. She dropped her head, her dark hair falling over her face and hiding her expression. She had heard everything the other woman had said, about her own experiences, and she seemed to not really be sad for having missed out on the presence of her parents in her life. Perhaps because she knew nothing of it? How could she miss that which she had never experienced?
But then, Dee had asked a question, and not answering it would be horribly obvious that she was avoiding the subject. Steadying herself she cleared her throat. “I don’t know. I suppose perhaps it’s easier to not know what you’re missing, having never had parents. Losing them is… awful. I don’t know that it can be adequately described and if it could I still don’t know that I’d be able to say it. But, aside from that, there are many wonderful memories I have of them. I don’t know if I would wish that away, no matter what…”
Her tone had turned half-sad and half-thoughtful, and though she tried to offer Dee a small smile, she couldn’t seem to muster one at the moment. So instead she took a long drink of her ale and tilted her head back with a sigh, closing her eyes.