"I'm pretty sure the question isn't whether it's right. It's not. The question is can you afford to spare them without inviting greater evils. The hard moral questions aren't between right and wrong, they're between two wrongs."

"I don't think you're evil if you haven't got better choices."

"You can do evil things because every other option is worse and not be an evil person. That doesn't mean that the action wasn't terrible."

"I'm not sure there's a line where you're drawing it. But okay. Elves kill orc babies. I'm glad to know that orcs suffer, that does make it different."

"Mostly it's a philosophy thing, not a practical thing," she admits. "And I'm going to see if my existence opens up new, less awful options for dealing with orc babies."

"Good of you. Though the best solution to orcs is to end them, by the Elves winning their war."

"Not gonna argue with that."

"Everything else okay? The Elves didn't take fancy footed offense at anything else about your civilization, which unlike ours they can't call primitive?"

"Not so far."

"No one's insisted you change your name?"

"Uh, no. Good luck to anyone who tries, I guess, not that it's going to do any good."

She smiles approvingly. "Arrange a marriage for you?"

"Do they seriously try these things? I'm here because I want to be because I'm useful and it's convenient. If it ceases to be convenient I can and will leave."

"Yeah, they do. They probably won't with you precisely because you can and will leave."

"Why would they try to arrange marriages?"

"Politics, you know. These two tribes of Men are both in the area, we'd rather have them under one rule, simpler for them, or there's two bloodlines that they think are terribly heroic - like with horses, do people breed horses where you're from?"

"...Yes. Horses and dogs and cats and anything else domesticated. That's--I mean arranged marriages happened sometimes, back home, especially for political reasons, but. You'd think the weird soul bond thing would give them an aversion."

"It means they take it very seriously. That doesn't always help us."

"If anyone is having a marriage arranged for them and wants out, you can send them to me and I'll back them up."

"Noted." She smiles wolfishly. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Illia."

"I think you mentioned that when we actually met." Gosh she has a pretty smile.

"Right, but then I was just saying it."

"I sort of assumed you meant it after I mentioned that I could crack an Elf's skull open if he tried anything, but I appreciate the actual sentiment as distinct from the meaningless nicety."

"I meant that, too. But - you could hurt an Elf to protect yourself, that's different from you'll pick a fight for someone else."

"Fair enough. I guess I kind of take my own moral compass for granted sometimes."