"There was other stuff, too, afterwards. My wife requested I space out the sad stories."

"Well, this is the first we've seen her since she found you again, so I don't even know the contents of the sad stories you already told her."

"There was an army of idiots who committed genocide, threatened to do it again, and then claimed a Silmaril."

She makes a face. "So why aren't they the most reviled monsters?"

"Well, they didn't hurt Elves."

"...Your species is kind of terrible, except for all the ways it's really great."

"Interesting way to put it."

"Well, I'm sure if you told people the right things about humanity, they could say that about us, too."

"I guess. It's not a very flattering comparison."

"Oh?"

"If you just count the entire First Age as a catastrophic aberration the Elven rate of mass violence is 'none', Elven rate of violent crime is 'none'. "You're not really worse than humans, who have a literally infinitely higher crime rate" isn't especially soothing."

"If you don't count the First Age, didn't your species spend almost its entire collective lifespan locked in a gilded cage?"

"...no? There was Cuivienen, there were eight thousand years on Middle-earth after the war..."

"Well, Idaia didn't get around to mentioning everything," she shrugs. "My point, when I was saying you could describe humanity that way too, was less we're not so different and more it's possible to create nearly any impression about any group by cherry-picking the facts."

"Yeah, definitely."

"It was lovely meeting you. I'll show you some of my art, sometime, and give you a housewarming present when you have a house if it's pretty enough."

"The house or the present?"

"The present. I wouldn't dream of judging your house."

"I'm sure the present will be lovely."

Gloria looks at Idaia.

Do you honestly feel that way or just want to avoid offending my friend?

There's plenty of genuinely breathtaking human art. Guess it's possible she has dreadful taste but I'm guessing you wouldn't have mentioned her art so enthusiastically.

Nah, she's great. She nods slightly to Gloria. She wasn't sure if you meant it and wouldn't have appreciated an insincere compliment.

"I am not in the habit of lying to be nice."

"Well, you seemed pretty obviously desperately attached to Idaia, and she likes us, so I wasn't sure."

"I wouldn't lie to be nice to someone you were friends with," Klaudia points out.

"There are levels of that less extreme than yours, darling, you use 'idiot' like 'aloha' sometimes."

"Only with people who are being idiots."