"I'm already on a committee or I would."

A couple people standing near Xavi look at him, probably because they're thinking of 'monsters'.

She would rather not be on any committees. That seems like a good way to make sure she never gets to get home. But if she makes it home safe and then gets eaten by a monster, that barely helps, and if she makes it home safe and all her family gets eaten by monsters, that's worse.

"I don't think monsters should be allowed to eat people." She glances at the man who said he's already on a committee. "I think maybe as many of us as possible should go and say that? Even if you're also on another committee? Is that allowed?"

"It's allowed! They don't all meet at the same hour, and people can move between rooms depending where something interesting is happening." She smiles encouragingly at her. "Your courage will protect many people."

"Oh, okay, if we can be on a few I'm happy to go say that monsters are no good."

“I think this kind of thing is precisely why the Queen wanted ordinary people here.” And she’ll lead her new charges over to the forests committee.

And there they will find a black-haired, lightly-scarred Hellknight already sitting just next to the seat designated for the chair. She nods politely to everyone arriving.

Tuimfane is also present, an irritable-looking elf sewing a cloak out of what appears to be leaves and looking as though he would dearly prefer to be elsewhere.

Huh, you can sew leaves? Maybe you can only do it if you're an elf.

If it's the right leaves.

Feather enters just after them. She's a young human-looking woman dressed in leathers and furs (but no cloth) and has a sleepy owl on her shoulder, and she looks like she's preparing for a Very Important Exam where she must score perfectly and is about to meet the examiner for the first time.

...that's a cool-looking cloak! When that elf said he was from "Whisperwood" he may have meant a community closer to the forest than she thought - maybe he's a ranger or something? Wait, do elves even live among humans in Cheliax?

Well, either way, he hopefully cares about forest relations based on personal experience and not a vague fear of 'monsters', and he cares about dealing with hell-portals and werewolf plagues, so he's probably a sensible person. The right kind of person to have on this committee.

She looks like she walked out of a fucking book of fables. He'd read her to the baby and the baby would go "are druids real". Apparently they are.

Taís looks rather like she's trying to disappear into the floor.

The strix enters the room and waves at Feather.

Why are there so many monsters at this convention.

Narcis gives Feather a nod of recognition as he finds himself a seat.

“Right. Well, as I see it forests are one of the biggest things wrong with Cheliax today, and while we have allied archmages is a great time to try to make sure no one is ever eaten by a monster out of the forest again.” By burning them.

"Or petrified, or trampled, or dissolved in acid, or dragged off into the First World."

"The chief source of monsters coming out of the Whisperwood is the ones we're trying to kill," he says. "Go give the Order of the Pike a lot of money, they're helping us out."

"We would certainly accept it if offered, Delegate Ascathel. But I believe our first order of business is to select a chair."

"Right. I think you should be the chair because I've seen you do things."

"Or you can make peace and build an accord with the forests that stops 'monsters' from eating humans outside of them, instead of killing a lot of innocents to get at your actual enemies," Feather says coldly. "I thought you claimed to be Good now? What you said is - Asmodean Cheliax, now with three more archmages."

"I don't know who you are yet," to Anna, "so I can't say if you should be the chair. Let's introduce ourselves first."

"I'm Bright Morning Feather, druid, representing the Forest of Ravounel. I came here in the hope of making peace and maybe establishing some laws or trade or such, between the forest and the humans of Cheliax. - and the nonhuman people of Cheliax, who we're not at war with," she adds with a nod at Liushna. "And I certainly hope that you don't represent the rest of Cheliax and of this convention and committee," to Eulàlia.

"I move that we don't have anybody who declares themselves at war with us here," says Lluc.

“Delegate say have portal to hell, is different from situation in Ravounel Forest,” Liushna points out to Feather.

"Sure, he can stay, sounds like a problem, it's her who's apparently at war."

"Anna Tomàs, Mistress of Blades of the Order of the Pike, which places me second in command. Our primary responsibility has been the monsters of the Whisperwood, as it has been for Delegate Ascathel and the other druids of the Whisperwood. If I may speak for a moment, I think I ought elaborate."

"Forests contain three things, principally: druids, good strong trees, and problems. In some forests, such as the Whisperwood, the problems are greater than usual, such as a hostile dragon and a corrupted portal to Hell which sends out devils even the Church of Asmodeus could not control. In these cases, the settled humans and the druids both recognize that they share priorities, and moderately lawful conduct is enough to cooperate."

"In other forests, the problems are limited and the druids can deal with them all on their own. Then it becomes very important that the settled humans desire to turn the trees into useful lumber, and the druids desire that they not do that, and the standards of lawful conduct required to prevent hostilities are much higher."

"I do not expect this committee can identify a policy that will prevent all war over the trees, where many centuries of kings have failed. But we must avoid recommending anything that would prevent cooperation or negotiation, or we are no better than the River Kingdoms where no policy or agreement can be trusted beyond a handful of years."

"I don't think you should be trying to chop the Whisperwood down, it's not yours. But there's a time for normal bickering over where the lines are and how much dead wood you collect and whether or not we give you Plant Growth and a time for closing the portal to Hell that is sending giant hordes of devils to attack everyone while we're talking."

“Of course the archmages should close the portal but no one here can do anything about that. …I so hate to disappoint Delegate Feather but I do represent the people of Cheliax and the rest of this convention, so you had better have some proposals for peace which aren’t “I’ll just tell everyone that it’s not Good to kill monsters and they’re probably so naive about Good they’ll believe me.” I support the nomination of the Hellknight as the chair and I second the motion to expel delegates who declare themselves at war with Cheliax, this being a convention for Chelish people and not for Cheliax’s enemies to try to undermine us.”

Wait, did she call the elf a druid?!

...this calls for a rapid reevaluation which Feather does not feel she is qualified to carry out while in the middle of possibly the most impactful argument of her life!! Maybe she can, uh, ignore it for a few minutes? It sounds like the Whisperwood has even worse problems than Ravounel forest somehow??

"Everyone thinks 'monsters' means something different," she says half on autopilot. "It's not Good to kill people who have done nothing to you. Many people live in the forests who aren't druids. My family aren't druids, most of my friends and the people I know at home aren't druids. The druids often speak for the people of the forest but we're only a small part of everyone who lives there."

"Cheliax attacked the forest. If this convention of yours can't decide to make peace, what good is it? Do you want to keep killing people just because you got used to killing them when Asmodeus told you to do it?"

"I don't know about Whisperwood, it sounds like you have different and worse problems there and Delegate Ascathel should speak to that. But I've been to Barrowood, the other big forest in Cheliax." For a few days, but they knew what she was going to try here and didn't tell her not to, so.

"It's true that we don't want you to chop down the trees. There are several reasons but the one I think you will understand best is just - that's our home. If you chop down enough trees to make the forest smaller, it can only end with no forest."

"I'm not asking you to do it only because you are Good." She probably isn't, is she. "There are things the druids, and maybe some other forest people, can offer you if we're not fighting. Plant growth, of course. Help with creatures that go out of the forest and kill humans, some of those you call 'monsters'. Some of them are only there because they help defend the forest against humans, because there is no peace we can trust in. Other spells. Help talking to the animals and plants you farm, and even if you don't care about treating them well out of Good, it can help you care better for them so they work better for you. Kinds of plants you don't know about, or don't know how best to grow, which you could eat. Quick-growing bushes you can burn without logging whole trees. Probably many other things I haven't thought of yet, because we haven't actually sat down and tried helping each other yet."

"But we won't help there be more humans if we can't trust the humans not to be at war with us. Next year, or next decade."

"Feather, we had an entire conversation the other day, and I told you, you need a log for a good fire. Shrubbery's kindling. I don't deny you could be very useful if you took it into your head, but it'd help a lot if you only needed to be told a thing once."

Delegate Ascathel thinks this is dumb because humans are dumb, and two humans talking to each other won't fix problems long-term even if one of them says she's a druid.

"I remember that. I think that's the kind of problem you shouldn't say can't be solved until many people, wiser and more experienced and with more - different experience from each other than just me or you, have spent some time seriously trying to solve. My point is that that's a problem you have, you need firewood, and maybe we can solve it if we try to solve it together, and we shouldn't fight over the trees before we've even tried doing that."

“Are you demanding that people not kill monsters when they leave the forest, or are you not demanding that.”

"It depends on what you call 'monsters'. I am not asking, and never asked, for you not to kill someone - or some creature - that leaves the forest and that you have a good reason to think is going to try to kill you or someone else," not that she trusts this woman's evaluation of good reasons when she wouldn't even give her name after Feather asked.

"It would be much better for it to be clear that when, say, I or one of my friends want to leave the forest, someone isn't going to try to kill them and then say they were 'monsters' just for not being humans. And the Committee on Nonhuman Rights already agreed that nonhumans can live peacefully in Cheliax without being attacked. But even humans not going into the forest to kill people at random would already be better than the current situation."

"The reason to think a monster that leaves the forest is going to kill someone is that the last twenty did or tried."

Oh good. She was going to say that but now she doesn't have to. She nods.

Sigh. Here they go again. "Every time someone says that I ask, what are you calling a monster? Some people answer 'a creature that kills humans', which is just circular. Some people answer 'anyone who doesn't live peacefully by the laws, including human bandits', which I am fine with but then how do you tell them on sight? If you can identify some race, and you know they always want to kill humans and there are no good or peaceful people among them, and you're sure enough of that to attack a stranger on sight without even trying to talk first if they're the kind of creature that talks, then - I think you'd better be very sure, and very wise, and know a lot about all the different creatures there are, to be right."

"But I can't actually stop you from attacking creatures that go out of the forest. It's probably too early to talk about that. You - I mean the humans outside the forests - have suffered from this war, just as we have, and you're afraid of your enemy and angry at them just as we are. That's probably not something we can just solve by talking here today. What we can do is stop fighting. And hopefully years from now, we or our children can do better than that."

"So what I'm actually asking for is more like - if anything from the forest tries to come out and is likely to kill humans, the druids and other people of the forest will try to stop it. If any humans try to enter the forest and kill people there, or burn it or log all the trees, then the humans will try to stop them, or punish them or turn them away when they come back home, or not complain or be angry if the forest kills them. There will probably be - people on both sides who don't obey this. But if both sides are working against those people, it has to be better than working against each other."

"Can we distinguish between owlbears and nymphs and devils, here," says Tuimfane. "That's the important distinction. You should kill all the devils and I don't care if you cull the owlbears that leave the forest and if you get in a fight with a nymph she was right and you were wrong."

Liushna nods along because the thing Whisperwood Guy said was 100% correct.

Finally someone talks sense! 

(Feather is aware that she still hasn't properly processed Tuimfane actually being a druid - why didn't he talk to her before the committee, they could have coordinated better than this -)

She gives him a nod and a smile. Can someone else please say something sensible? She feels like half the people in the room haven't spoken yet and she doesn't know who they are and so can't pretend to understand them even on the  horribly inadequate basis of 'imagine an average Chelish human'.

"Nymphs are perfectly capable of breaking Chelish law, and I cannot conceive of an agreement under which we would forfeit the right to enforce the law on her. But I will concede that a thinking resident of the forest like a nymph should be treated like a human who might possibly be an outlaw, not like a devil or owlbear."

"Yes. If a nymph goes out of the forest and kills or hurts someone, you can deal with her as you would have with a human. But humans shouldn't be allowed to go into the forest and kill nymphs and other people. Then the nymphs and everyone else can at least stay home and be safe, even if they don't understand or like the laws of human Cheliax."

He inclines his head slightly to the Hellknight. "If a nymph goes out of the forest and hurts or kills someone it's probably because the someone was doing some kind of elaborate evil ritual," he says. "And you should presume that she had a good reason, even if you want to find out what it was or if she made a mistake somehow."

"No. Nymphs are usually Chaotic Good, but so are Azatas and priests of the Drunk. If she will not stop when challenged by the law or explain herself, then she will be fought, captured, and if necessary executed, because the Law has expectations and if she does not meet them that is her own fault."

"The Law is an idiot."

(To Feather:)

"...in the meeting earlier today one of the priests said you think birds and squirrels are people? Do you think people shouldn't be allowed to hunt, or cut wood?"

"A nymph that goes against the law in human lands is a self-destructive fool."

"Nymphs don't, but if they do they have a good reason and you should take facts like 'nymphs are Good and are smarter and wiser than everyone else' seriously when you're deciding what rules to make."

"I would like it to be possible to arrest a nymph if one's up to mischief, but we should all remember that a couple years back the law was actively evil, yes? Instincts won't change overnight."

Liushna is inclined to agree with Ascathel about human law but probably saying so wouldn't be constructive.

"I don't think nymphs don't need to explain themselves", Feather says, hopefully as a sort of compromise position. "Certainly not if they've hurt someone. And - there are a lot of things I want that I know I can't get, that the humans of Cheliax won't agree to, or not yet. Narcis is right when he says instincts can't change quickly, and that goes for the forest people as well. If some nymphs leave the forest and are killed despite not doing any evil or not actually breaking the law, that would be bad, but it would still be a lot better than nymphs not being safe from humans even in the forest. So I want to start by agreeing on that. ...And then of course if you want to go further I would be very happy about it," she adds.

To Taís: "I do think birds and squirrels are people. Meaning that - they can suffer, and it's Evil to kill them or make them suffer needlessly. Hunting is fine, because it's not needless. But I haven't been able to convince any humans about it yet, or maybe to explain it right. So I'm not talking about that right now. I'm talking about people like nymphs who can talk so it's - easier for you to accept them as people. If you want I'd be happy to try to explain later, but I think right now it would just annoy everyone here and not convince them of anything."

"The last time I remember a nymph coming into conflict with the Order of the Pike, her pet bard had been arrested on suspicion of sedition of some kind, and she decided the right thing to do was kill every noble in the village, and every militiaman who got in her way, which was most of them. She died, and the bard was executed for being an accessory to murder. If that's wisdom, gods save me from wisdom. So no, I don't think the law should give her special treatment."

"Sedition against Asmodeus? Isn't that called decent behavior now?"

"Most likely. And the nobles she targeted were likely Evil. But the ones she killed were mostly militia, who were basically innocent. She got angry, and had the strength to do something about it, and wasn't nearly careful enough to ensure that anger landed on the people who possibly deserved it. Like most adventurers who follow Cayden Cailean. I'm not going to ask the Queen to treat her better than a priest of Cailean just because she has more respect in certain quarters."

"We've still got to select a chair. Is anyone putting themself forth besides the Hellknight?"

"Nominate Delegate Ascathel." 

“With all due respect to Delegate Ascathel it sounds like he only cares about his Hell portal, which, if my lands had a Hell portal that’s all I’d care about too, but it’s not a good committee topic, what do we have to say about it? The committee finds the Hell portal is unacceptable and should be closed, any dissent? No? Done.”

Feather doesn't trust Ascathel. She'd rather have Narcis Soler; maybe the other humans would listen to a cleric of Erastil. But he's probably better than Anna and more importantly he's better than the horrible nameless woman who just wants to murder everyone, and the sane people have to vote together to get anywhere, so she'll follow Liushna.

"I am in favor of Delegate Ascathel. Unless he declines," because it does seem likely he only cares about the portal to Hell and doesn't want to be chair, "in which case I nominate Delegate Soler. Of course the portal to Hell should be closed."

Then she hesitates, but - the mostly-silent people haven't actually done anything wrong; she shouldn't write them off as the horrible woman's allies just because they came in together. "Also, can the other people in the room please introduce themselves?" she says, looking at Taís and trying to regain a friendly tone and expression (and deliberately not looking at the horrible woman).

"I'm Taís. I'm here because I don't want monsters to eat my family."

"I have no particular desire to chair the committee, but I will serve if desired. I would also accept Sower Soler, if he wishes to lead the committee."

"Name is Liushna, tribe is Windwhip, come because suspect committee on Forests might also affect mountains."

“Eulàlia de Seguer.”

"Sower Narcis Soler as has been said."

"Lluc Llorente, also on the anti monsters eating my family coalition. I'd back the Erastilian."

"Tuimfane Ascathel, because apparently you wanted a druid from the whisperwood and they said 'you can sew while you talk, Tuimfane." He viciously jabs the cloak with his needle. "I nominated the Hellknight to be head of the committee. I suppose I'll do it if you want me to."

She doesn't want the woman in scary armor or the weird elf making clothes out of plants. At least the priest is probably a normal person? "I vote for Sower Soler too." 

"If Delegate Tuimfane not want it, vote for Soler also." 

"Well, all right, if that's how everybody feels about it. I haven't had reason to hold a pen in thirty years so I'll want somebody in practice at that sort of thing, to have a record and something to turn in to the President if we come up with a proposal."

"Good enough for me, Chair Soler. Scribe Paula can do the writing for you."

The young woman in gray robes nods and takes a seat next to the chair, making herself look small.

"Thank you kindly, Paula. So. Portal to hell is bad, we move that the archmages close that up smart quick, nobody's arguing there. The rest of the forests business is more complicated. Nobody wants to get eaten. The historical approach so far as I know is to fight with the forest creatures all the time if you live near some bit of forest. Is anybody doing better - already doing it, Feather, not thinking about it."

"Assume 'live on mountain too high many forest creature climb' not count." 

"It does not, no."

"I hear you've stopped worshipping Asmodeus, so I don't think you'll have any more trouble from the forest people who are reasonable and can be talked to around the Whisperwood unless you start it. Of course, there's still the trouble when the catfolk raid you humans and you kill an elf about it, that confuses me,* I don't think your eyesight's so bad that you can't see tails." 

(*: It does not confuse him, his explanation is that humans suck.)

"Well, we can write down 'make it generally known that the catfolk and the elves aren't great friends', it couldn't hurt."

"They're even shorter lived than you," Tuimfane says. "Who knows what they'll be doing in fifty years."

She really hates to bring up this example, but if the Whisperwood wants to go for it she supposes she can't in good faith tell them that fighting a war is better.

"The humans to the east of the Verduran Forest, I think they're called Taldane, made a Lawful agreement with the forest centuries ago so they don't fight over trees and land, and ever since then they don't. The forest gave them something that the druids in my forest won't agree to but maybe the other forests will, or ideally you'd do it for something else instead. I don't know the humans' side of the story though. It does show that humans can live with a forest in peace over many generations. And when everyone is at peace, hopefully they can work together to stop anyone from the forest attacking humans outside it, but I don't know the details of what the Verduran does about it."

"...and why wouldn't your forest agree to do what that other forest is doing that's working out peacefully?"

Sigh. "The Verduran Forest agreed to grow trees for harvesting - I mean, they grow trees specifically for that, and then they cut them down as soon as they're fully grown, and give them to the humans. They do it in the forest, I assume because trees are just - easier to grow in a proper forest with druids helping, otherwise the humans would just do it at home and not bother the forest about it. And they make sure to plant as many as they cut down."

"Some druids thought that was - not good, but - acceptable. In return for peace. Others thought it wasn't, and a lot of them left the Verduran for Ravounel Forest, and even though that was centuries ago it's still remembered and retold as - something we're not willing to do. I don't think I can explain why, or convince you that we're right about it, not in just a few hours."

"But if you ask the other forests in Cheliax and they agree to it and it works, then even if we in Ravounel Forest think it's wrong we can't actually stop you from doing that. I hope to find a better way for us but - the different big forests and their druids are probably going to make separate deals in any case, there's no single druid ruler like you have one queen, so you should know about it."

"Okay. So that might be something we can copy for the other forests but Ravounel's not going to tolerate it. Is there anything we can copy that might work for Ravounel Forest, or do we have to make something up totally new there to avoid just doing the same thing as always?"

"If the druids of Ravounel forest consider themselves at war with us and consider any peace terms that include logging to be so far beyond the pale there's no point in proposing them then it sure sounds to me like the solution to Ravounel forest is to send them a return declaration of war."

"Well, let's hear her out, druids care about things kind of sideways and maybe some logging would be all right and it's more specific to what they're doing in Verduran."

Feather slowly turns her head and gives the horrible woman her best owl stare, her blood pounding in her ears.

The thing is, she knows not all humans are like this. Most of the humans she's talked to in the city and the convention aren't like this. So why is this one behaving like a prototypical Outsider-human?

These humans don't know how to live together. They don't just argue or do selfish things, they don't agree and often don't understand how to live in a shared community. They called a convention to decide on a new way of doing that, but it's still made up of people who don't have an existing way of doing that.

Who is this Eulàlia? She's dressed like a rich person, maybe a noble, but she didn't introduce herself as one, so she can't be anyone really powerful or important. The top human nobles have really long names and a title like 'archduke'. She' just 'Eulàlia de Seguer,' which is probably the weakest kind of noble there is.

She attacked Feather on sight, and keeps attacking her at every opportunity. What does she have to gain? Maybe she doesn't care about the forests at all. Maybe she's just asserting dominance in the eyes of everyone else here, and attacking whoever she thinks is the next weakest person after herself, targeting whatever she thinks is their weakest spot.

Feather knows about dominance contests. You puff yourself up, look them in the eye (for most creatures including humans) and attack back, and never back down in compromise. And since this woman invoked the power of others and not her own, she has to outmatch her in that, since she's not allowed to simply peck out her eye.

"You are not doing the best thing for Cheliax," she says flatly. "You are doing what you think is best for yourself and don't care about anyone else, either from Cheliax or the forests. And because you're selfish, you don't have real allies in the war you're promoting."

"You're some kind of noble. Where is Seguer? Is it near Ravounel forest? Should I find the top noble, the archduke or whoever, of Ravounel and tell them you refused peace talks on their behalf, while promising it to the rest of Cheliax? Will you go and fight with them, or should I ask the Chelish nobles of Ravounel if the Forest should make war on you, personally, where-ever you may be?"

"You say you have three archmages to give you victory in war. Has one of them told you that? Archmage Naima Cotonnet personally came to Ravounel Forest, not to burn it down, but to ask me to attend this convention. Archmage Élie Cotonnet told the delegates to build peace for their children, and you will ask them to vote for war and tell them peace-deals about safety from 'monsters' are not worth it? Should I find the Archmage and tell him you are proposing to write into the new constitution that he must personally make war on your behalf?"

"The Archduke Antoninus Blanxart" - of the Heartlands, and she's not sure where that is except it's not Ravounel but hopefully being an Archduke is scary enough on its own - "is with me in the committee on nonhuman rights. He has already agreed to give nonhumans in Cheliax equal rights and their own governance. Should I tell him when we next meet that a noble from Seguer disagrees?"

"This convention is for discussing the highest laws of Cheliax, that you hope will hold for a long time after yourself. Will you write in your constitution, 'we are eternally at war with Ravounel forest'? Will you write in it, 'the Queen is forbidden to make peace with Ravounel forest under any conditions other than mine, Eulàlia de Seguer?' Will you call a vote of all the delegates to say your Queen is not allowed to make war or peace without changing the constitution?"

"We are not here to negotiate a final peace-deal with the forests and make it the highest law of Cheliax. It will probably take much time and effort from people from both sides to make a deal. The first thing they will try won't be perfect, so they will try a second thing, and a third. No one deal can be your highest law before we've even tried."

"What we are here for is to write in your new constitution: Cheliax does not want war on the forests for its own sake. Cheliax wants reasonable things, like wood and food and safety from 'monsters'. Cheliax prefers peace and trade, and will negotiate before declaring war, and if it is at war it will still say what it wants and will negotiate to get that in peace. Knowing examples of deals other forests made, coming up with deals we might make, those are useful, they give people hope so they will try. You're not trying. You're just finding excuses to make war. Maybe you should go to the committee for War and have them propose it."

Now she just needs to keep staring her in the eyes. Feather has an unfair advantage in never blinking first.

When quelling gestures don't help, Soler stands up. "Feather! That's enough. Neither you nor Delegate de Seguer gets to decide what Cheliax wants or how it'll get it, that's for everyone together to do. I'm sure Archhealer Naima invited you because she knew you'd have something valuable to say but you've got to say it in smaller pieces without looking like you're about to eat somebody yourself. Calm down."

She's very calm now, see, she's just sitting there staring Eulàlia in the eyes to make her look away.

Oh no why are the scary people yelling at each other. This is terrible.

"It would be fairly entertaining to see you try to figure out who I'm sworn to and complain to him. I encourage you wholeheartedly to attempt it. I would probably encourage you a bit less wholeheartedly if you were not a walking advertisement for burning your forest to the ground. You are oblivious, childish, fantastically ignorant, swing back and forth wildly between claiming you just want to have a reasonable conversation and braying that monsters eating people are the true victims and talking about how many trees and squirrels there are in the forest. And most importantly you keep saying that we are at war and expecting that to have no meaning.

In Cheliax, telling people you're at war with them does have a meaning. It means that we're at war with you. It is a serious matter, and not one you can take back by immediately declaring that actually you just meant something stupid about squirrels. If you are retracting your statement that we are at war, I am delighted to hear it. If you claim that you are in fact a polity not at war with Cheliax and you want to enjoy the privileges of such, great.

If you think that I will ever be ashamed that I called for your forest to be burned to the ground, you badly misunderstand how many millions of people would rejoice were your forest burned to the ground, and how much I care about their opinions next to yours."

When they escalate, escalate back. (Also, still not blinking.)

"Ravounel Forest was at war with Cheliax under Asmodeus, because Asmodeus's humans attacked us." Don't mention Aroden and hope they've forgotten all about him. "I hear other places that made war on Cheliax under Asmodeus are now called heroes. Perhaps you have not heard that Asmodeus's wars were not good for Cheliax."

"We are only at war in the sense that you still keep trying to attack us. I would be happy to say we are at peace and put that in your constitution, if it lets the committee talk usefully and not just make threats. And I do not think millions of your people would be very happy to hear you are sending them, personally, to burn down Ravounel Forest or die trying."

Fuimfane turns to Liushna. "Humans are really very stupid. Are strix less stupid?"

"Feather. I said to stop." He waves his arm in between the two of them in case breaking eye contact will help. "Lots of things are changing, and you make a very, very bad advocate for your forest when you act like this."

She turns to look apologetically at Soler. "I apologize to the chair. I do want to make one point that I think might be an underlying confusion here...Cheliax is not trying to attack Ravounel forest. There are probably starving farmers risking it for food, and there are probably bandits fleeing pursuit who go there, but Cheliax is not currently attacking Ravounel or any forest, is everyone clear on that?"

"We've just learned today that the elves aren't the catfolk's friends, so it stands to reason somebody in a forest might not know that the farmers and bandits aren't acting under orders from on high, too. There's no formal state of war. Feather, it could get worse, you know that, right? The thing now isn't really war."

"Well, they were last year. The Chelish army with all their armor was going into the Whisperwood to try and kill everything they saw and chop down trees and build castles. Not very far, but they were trying. Then they stopped and told everyone their god wasn't giving them any spells any more. They shouldn't try again."

It's not that the Lady de Seguer is worse than the druid-girl, but that she doesn't have an excuse.

"A state which permits its citizens to raid across the border with a neighboring state and does not reliably punish them as criminals is generally not considered to be at peace with that neighbor, though certainly a formal declaration of war is more hostile. I think by a strict interpretation the lady's statement is false."

"I don't think forays of monsters out of the Whisperwood have stopped at all, though I don't border it, and ultimately the reason that Cheliax has on occasion seen fit to push back the forests is that we are treated the same by their inhabitants whether or not we've offered any provocation."

“Humans so stupid!” Liushna agrees quietly to Tuimfane. “Strix—Itarii—much less stupid. Have met a few human not seem stupid, but,” shrug, “some so so stupid.”

Damn it, now Soler is demanding she back down. ...She'll act contrite to him, not to Eulàlia.

"...I apologize to the chair. I don't mean we're being attacked by a big force right this moment. The last big attack was three years ago, and only much smaller ones since then. But no-one came around to tell us we're at peace now, and to - arrange that. So I came here to tell you that we want peace, and that we think we can have it if we try, and try to give you the things you want, for peace or in trade. It would be stupid to say that the reason to keep being at war is that we are at war."

"Dangerous creatures sometimes leave the forest and attack people - humans outside it, yes. As I said, we encourage them to be there - on the outskirts of the forest, not deeper inside - because they help defend it against humans who go in. We don't usually encourage them to leave but sometimes they do. We could make there be less of them, and stop or chase down any who try to leave, or stop those who manage to leave anyway and then come back. But we can't do it unless we can trust that we won't need them to defend against humans going into the Forest, now or in a decade. And we can't do it anyway, or go around giving you plant growth and other things, if we need to spend our time being ready to the forest."

"So neither of us can make things better by ourselves. We need to talk and do things together, or it won't work. Neither of us are happy with the way things are."

"The government that you had issues with is overthrown. You acknowledge the new government has done nothing except invite you here peacefully. So now you'll do plant growth and stop the monsters from escaping the forest to eat people, right?" Of course they fucking won't.

"One thing at a time, please, Delegate de Seguer! So it seems to me that if it's important to the forest folk to be told things, there should be a way to tell them things without having to walk into the forest, which you've just said you made dangerous on purpose. You don't have a mailbox, do you?"

"That's a good question. Strong mages can go in safely but most people can't. This one is easy to solve though! We can keep a low-circle ranger or druid on duty outside the forest who can send in animals with messages, or go in themselves if it's urgent. Especially if there's something useful for them to do there the rest of the time, if there are things we'd be doing for you anyway other than plant growth, like - giving people goodberries or something."

"The things that make a forest a good neighbor will be, yes, plant growth, and goodberries could be a nice treat now and again, and wood, and lines of communication. I think we're hearing things in both directions about whether a forest is a thing that can do something or not do it, the way a country is. Who-all would need to agree, for your forest to do or not do something? When they sent you were they saying they'd take your report and follow along with what agreements you made?"

"The forest has a council of druids, with representatives of some of the other races and - communities in it, and they'd need to agree to the deal. If they do, I don't think anyone else in the forest is strong enough to seriously oppose them. Some people might choose not to help, it's not all - giving orders, but most people eventually need something from the druids and their friends so they'd get it done. Most of the people who actively, deliberately defend the forest from outsiders are already the druids and their friends, so they'd be helping."

"I can't promise specific things for them right now. I can suggest and propose things, and tell you what I think they'll want and accept, and then I'll tell them what you said and what you want. And then I really think some people from both sides will need to meet again and figure out the best terms, to settle on a final deal."

"All right. So from where we're sitting it may be the best we can do to say that there ought to be an ambassador of some kind to your forest, maybe to the other two also, and they should talk about what they want and what they can do to trade for it."

"Yes! That would be very good. To say we and you both don't want to fight, and we should talk and try to agree on peace and trade." Soler is her new favourite city human! Putting "we should talk and not fight" in the Chelish highest law is all she ever wanted. (At least, all of it that was realistic, given that Eulàlia exists.)

"The Whisperwood doesn't have anyone in charge," Tuimfane points out. "It's a place, not a town." 

...this elf probably isn't a real druid after all.

It makes sense that the druids of Ravounel Forest are more organized, because they run the best forest-defense in Avistan, but all druids are fundamentally social creatures. Not in the sense that they have to live together, but - they live in the context of there being other druids in their forest. They keep in touch with each other, they help and guide the rest of the forest, and obviously they have to agree on things sometimes. If they couldn't organize the forest to do things, there'd be no forest left! They can't just - depend on Hell portals and dragons to keep the humans away!

"Either of you know about the third forest?"

That's a great question Feather has been dreading all week! She wishes there was a druid delegate from Whisperwood here with her to back her up. (Seriously, that forest is several times bigger than Ravounel, why couldn't they spare a delegate?)

"I don't know as much as I'd like to," she confesses. "I've been there briefly and I was taught about it some. I think the druids have several more local groups, because it's a much bigger forest, and one group of people can't organize and keep track of it all from one place. But I expect they all at least know each other, so they should be able to arrange a meeting of representatives from the different areas or something."

(She thinks the most likely reason they didn't send a delegate is that no one could speak for the whole forest, although they didn't exactly tell her this.)

"Well, they didn't for this convention, so I don't see too much reason for optimism that they'll pull together if someone asks again."

"They might not have known the convention would let them talk about this, or what the new government is like. I only came because I hoped, the invitation to the convention didn't actually say it was for promoting peace and trade with the forests. It's worth asking them."

"All right, we can recommend figuring out whether there's something there to send an ambassador to."

"No forests have a government, any more than the Abyss does."

"I never met anybody from the Abyss and I suppose they might lie even if they said they had a council, but Feather says her forest's got a council. I can't cast Plant Growth. Might never be able to. But druids can and I'd like to finagle a way to make it look like the right thing to do."

'I expect you've been to both so you can compare', Feather does not say to Eulàlia, because she wants to be nice to Soler.

"Can Delegate Seguer please not interfere while Sower Soler talking?" Liushna asks, as sweetly as she can. 

"I can look out for myself, thanks."

"Among humans the convention is that when one person stops speaking and looks around the room, he invites comment from others. I know that this is one of the many ways humans are different from the strix. Another is that we are not cannibals."

There's a cannibal on the committee??????

"There wasn't any call for that."

"...Well, actual reason Delegate Seguer should not talk is because have no idea what talking about. But thought better say other reason." 

"Honored chair, the strix habit of cannibalism strikes me as precisely the sort of cultural difference which a committee like this one should strive to learn about so as to better understand one another. Truly, how can we build the foundations of mutual respect without mutual comprehension?"

"Not sure what cannibal mean exactly. If mean eat other person same species, strix not do. If means eat other person, most strix tribes not do. Very few tribe do and nobody like them. Also," she examines her fingernails, which is something she's seen bitchy human women do, "think human never eat human, still not know what talking about." 

"This is the committee on Forests, not the committee on what to have for supper. Both of you cut it out."

Liushna shrugs and sits back in her chair. She got the last word in, so that's fine. 

"I apologize, honored chair. Delegate Windwhip, perhaps we can meet after this session so I can learn more about which are the people-eating tribes. I think our previous conversation was on - attempting to figure out if there's someone to send a delegate to? I'm pessimistic, but won't vote in opposition, so long as the delegate has written a will and has grown children and so on."

Eyeroll. Not that anyone can see it. She's dealing with enough stupid evil humans on the committees. And she has to in order to get things done! But what possible benefit could talking to That Bitch outside the committee have?

Strix are not cannibals. And everyone eats persons, whatever the human language thinks about it. 

Also, one big advantage of Forest society (and the subject of this committee) is that when you encounter a horrible woman, there generally is someone less horrible you can find who would eat her.

Feather does not say this, because she wants Soler not to be upset with her, even though she's downgraded him to 'nice, for a city human' for being so both-sides about it.

"If the crown can't find anybody who'd make the trip and who can speak for the crown, then that's a pity, all we can do is recommend they look."

She honestly only heard that strix were cannibals from a bard who was definitely making up at least half of what he was saying about them so she's delighted that Delegate Windwhip didn't really deny it.

"Of course. I'll support a recommendation to look."

"So there's three forests and three ideas - get Ravounel an ambassador, see if Barrowood could use one, and close the hell portal."

"Ideally not just the portal but the dragon Athervox. The Whisperwood is even larger, and, the portal being closed, will present the same issues as the Barrowwood, being even larger. Delegate Ascathel's description matches my experience, but communication between segments would likely improve were all the problems the natural kind which druids have a gift for keeping under control."

"Close the portal and be rid of the dragon. Are you quite caught up, Paula, do you need a moment?"

"You can't beat Aethervox unless the archmages do it," Tuimfane says. "Because she's an elder dragon." 

"Fortunately one of them takes a keen interest in the convention and perhaps can be asked to do - errands."

Liushna hisses sharply in sympathy at the "elder dragon" remark. 

"Don't worry about me, Sower," Paula says, then ducks her head back to looking as small as possible. It's not worth explaining how shorthand works to a perfectly pleasant and probably wise, but entirely uneducated, farmer.

"Okay. Let's vote on our three ideas. I think I've an idea where everyone stands but just as a formality, you see. Should the Queen and/or her archmage friends be prevailed on to go close the portal to Hell and slay the dragon, I say aye."

"Aye."

"Aye."

"Yes! Uh, aye." She's weirded out by the thought of killing a dragon who's probably doing more than anyone to protect the forest but she can hardly argue with Tuimfane about it in front of everyone else.

"Aye."

"Well, at least close the portal."

"With the portal being the higher priority of the two, all right."

"The Queen can take a dragon, she fought the Tarrasque. Aye."

The Queen did WHAT?????

"Aye."

"Unanimous in favor. Next, that the Crown appoint some sort of diplomat or something to Ravounel Forest to work out, uh, border control and trade. I say aye."

"Aye." It probably won't work but it's the civilized thing to try.

"Aye."

"Aye!"

"Aye."

Everyone is voting for it and most of them are scary but the normal priest voted for it too. "Aye."

"Aye, I guess."

"Can we phrase it something like - 'great are the depredations that the people of Ravounel have suffered at the hands of monsters from the forest, but it is our duty to approach this convention with hope and mercy in our hearts as Iomedae teaches, and so to hope that Ravounel's great cruelties were intended to be visited against the Asmodeans, and to appoint a representative for the purpose of ascertaining if this is so, and if the end of these depredations can be negotiated peacefully'?

I don't want to make any recommendation to the floor that ignores the great harms we're discussing. It's fine to be merciful but it's different from just pretending there's nothing to forgive."

"That's a mighty fancy way to put anything and it doesn't sit right in my head. How's about for short we say something like, seeing as how it's hard and dangerous to live near the edge of the forest," he does mostly mean for the regular folks who live there but he also says it in a way that could mean somebody inside too, so Feather won't explode, "and this forest does happen to have a council, so we are told, we recommend sending a diplomat to talk to that council, hoping that they will see the benefits of becoming better neighbors by and by."

"I think that makes us sound foolish and naive. But if you throw in the bit about it being our duty to have mercy and hope then we're not being foolish, we're being Good." Being Good is when you're foolish with the reward of Heaven for it.

"All right, I don't mind saying we've got a duty to have mercy and hope."

"Then I'm in favor of the motion also and it's unanimous."

"...should we also have a motion that it's bad for monsters to eat people?"

"is there supposed to be a bit in a constitution where it just lists things that are bad? Closest thing I can think of is the Rights Committee and that's about what the government can do to you, not what a gnoll can do to you."

"You can make it illegal to eat humans outside the forests, but I assumed that's already the law? What does saying that it's bad do on top of that?" Feather knows by now that when most Chelish say 'people' they really mean other humans. ('Monsters' she's given up on.)

Taís does not have any idea what sort of thing goes in a constitution and looks like she's rather regretting having spoken up at all.

"Anyhow. Third, motion that for much the same reasons, the Crown send somebody to check if Barrowood has some kind of council or something like it too, so that it'd take to a diplomat also."

"The findings of this committee don't have to all go directly in the constitution and I think it's certainly one of the findings of this committee that many people live in terror of the monsters that come out of the forest, and many die of being eaten by those monsters, and our hope by this recommendations is that that will change, whatever it takes. I don't see why not to send that to the floor too, our honored druid delegates agree that it's a terrible thing that people keep being eaten."

What a fucking bitch.

"Yeah, all right." He's not even going to quibble with the wording on that one.

She smiles encouragingly at Tais. "I suspect the resolution against monsters eating people will be unanimous too, of course, but just to check - all in favor? Aye."

"Aye?"

"Aye to not eating humans in Cheliax." Agreeing on that will hopefully stop Eulàlia from triumphantly telling everyone the druids wanted to keep eating humans, and it's not like it has a chance of not passing. 

...Why is she kidding herself, Eulàlia is totally going to tell people that, she'll just lie about it.

"Empty statements save no lives. You are wasting time that could be used on measures of substance. But the damage is done, so aye."

"Aye."

"Aye."

“Aye.”

"I am opposed to monsters eating people. Everyone is. Why are we even having this conversation."

"Because Delegate Seguer want social dominance." 

Everyone is mad at her but the noblewoman. This is terrible.

"I think that passes. Back to the Barrowood proposal. That the Crown send somebody to check if it has a council or somesuch that would receive an envoy. Aye."

“Aye.”

"Aye."

"Sure. Do that."

“Aye.”

Well, her memories of scattered reports from the area suggest that's even more doomed than Ravounel, but it's still better to try, and have a lawful excuse to declare war or something like it.

"Aye. And we'll supply bodyguards if they want them."

"Sounds useful as anything, thank you."

"Aye."

It seems like a waste of time but anything the noble lady and the crazy druid can agree on is probably fine. "Aye."

"And I think we can call it a day here, go meet some other delegates and sit on our other committees."

"Good." Tuimfane has now gotten progress on his key goal and will pack up his sewing project for next time.