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[rebells]

[Someone's bored, evidently. Or perhaps just at his wit's end.]

So I thought I might as well pose the question.

How does one get an intelligent but warlike species that can't communicate and doesn't seem interested in anything but attacking people to calm down?

- Jay, if you wanted to know.

Comments

[rebells]

[There's a pause.]

I don't think you could eat them all by yourself. That's something we'd probably have to talk about as a group if it comes to that.

[rootandbranch]

I don't know how much I could eat at once. I'm never full, so I could probably try.

[his voice betrays interest in the issue. am i actually a bottomless pit or do i just feel that way?]

I'm more wondering if you think it matters if they all die, though.

[rebells]

[And a longer pause, before this next message.]

Practically, it may be the only long-term solution to this problem. Ethically . . . you should probably ask someone else about ethics. I have a feeling some members of this coven would object.

[rootandbranch]

You're a member of this coven too. I'm asking you. I've asked at least a couple other people already.

[pushing on this one, apparently]

[rebells]

You shouldn't go to me to get an idea of what's ethical, is what I mean.

[A little--rueful, maybe; a little wistful.]

My power worked on them. That would seem to qualify them as 'people.' It's generally not considered ethical to systematically kill a group of people.

If we have to do it to protect ourselves, I would do it anyway.

[rootandbranch]

Are you not very ethical? Is that what makes you unethical...

[HE'S JUST CURIOUS MAN

HOW ELSE DO YOU FIND OUT IF YOU DON'T ASK??]

[rebells]

Doing unethical things on purpose? Probably.

[rootandbranch]

Huh, okay. And who decides ethical?

[rebells]

. . . no one person, although some people have a better moral compass than others. When you want to decide whether something is ethical, you weigh how it hurts or helps people, and the balance of power between the parties involved.

[rootandbranch]

[Geir understands power.]

Who would you say has power, in this world...? The Uvi? Qri? Us?

[rebells]

The Uvi have power over the Palai . . . Qri has power over us. Beyond that, it gets somewhat complicated.

[rootandbranch]

We've got power over all of'em, really.

[rebells]

Do we? Man to man, we're more powerful than the Uvi. But they have a huge advantage in numbers.

[rootandbranch]

[matter-of-fact, though his tone is a little distant]

Battlefields are battlefields, and the ones who fight on them will die or live by their own hands. That's always true. But this battlefield wouldn't even exist if we weren't here. What we decide to do is what will change things for this world. That's power.

[rebells]

. . . we've already changed the situation by being here. I just wonder if that's in the way we wanted to.

[rootandbranch]

See, that's just what I mean! You get it. We're the ones changing things. We could withhold help from Qri, too, even if it'd be a pain for us. That would change something else.

Dad says, power and wiles are understanding how you could be the one to bring everything down, no matter what you're looking at. Dad is a donkey's ass, but he's right.