She shook her head. "Soothly, I couldn't say. It's beyond me. You do not negotiate with someone you plan to take by force, will-they or never-so. It may be the fayerie after all, then; that would require our consent."

"I don't know if negotiation is necessarily better," Cara replied. At least if someone declares war, you can point to a specific action. You can show a reason for your resentment. If someone smothers you with niceties, you might not realize you're being smothered until it's too late."

"There's not many people here would stand still long enough to negotiate," she said. "The Mainland is a threat. The Queen might tolerate the humans, but no one else would."

"I heard about your Queen," Cara said. "A little. She's half-blooded, isn't she? Is there a word for it?"

"The, ah, nice term for it is meascán," Meg, ever diplomatic, replied. "If you e'er hear someone talk about a halfling as their cousin's child, it's that too. But aye, Her Majesty is one."

"Do people have a feeling about that?" Cara asked. "For your leader to be half one of us...must be very...different?"

"The last time it happened, there was a war," Morgana said simply. "But that was so long ago that it's only a story now. This time, there's been nothing but silence, and I can't tell what it means. I hope that it means people are wondering if time's past enough that the story can stay a story and we need not repeat it out of habit."

"Is this one of those warning stories?" Cara asked. "If a human ever rules the Erins, the world will be rent in two and a great fire will ravage the land?"

"Well, the last time it happened, the land was rent in two. Half the nobles on Tir-Nan-Og ended up trooping north with their leader into exile." She took a peek through the shutters at Jochy, then went on. "I don't move through the Court, Mistress Cara; the most I know is what I glean through Niabheara, and she tells me it's quiet out there."

"Niabheara...is the one Jochy didn't sleep with, is that correct?"