"So, you can't find coffee here - does everyone drink tea?"

"I don't think Mendevians drink much tea either. Bizarre, really, given the weather. Perhaps I should ask the Knight-Commander to do us all a favor and pick up some of each the next time his wizard friend takes him to Absalom. Then I guess we can see how people sort out, and whether Isarn is the weird place or Vigil is. Or if the Knight-Commander won't indulge me in that, Daeran might."

...He is not going to ask about Daeran. It is the Knight-Commander's job, not his, to decide on and enforce fraternization policy.

That went much better. He tries Lann next.

The mongrels have their own quarter of the city, with its own guards posted, which is possibly not a great sign though they're happy enough to show someone who is looking for Lann to him. Lann is in a mess hall, talking with a large crowd of people, but he's happy enough to wind his way over to the priest when he sees him.

"Hello, are you Lann? I'm Aarind, a priest of Iomedae. I don't think I've ever met one of your kind before, what do you call yourselves?"

"- well, we call ourselves neathers. Most people call us mongrels, though. It doesn't really matter. I'm Lann, what can I do for you?"

"I'm getting to know the Knight-Commander's team - how'd you wind up on it?"

"- well, when Deskari attacked Kenabres, he opened up a big chasm between the city and the underground, and a bunch of people from the surface fell through. We hadn't really been in contact with the surface since - before anyone now alive was born. Neathers don't live long. Anyway, one of the people who fell through and survived the fall was Seelah, and another was Anevia, and they wanted to get back to the surface, and we were talking with Chief Sull about organizing to all try to go up and help, and then the Knight-Commander got in contact with Anevia with his crystal ball, and she said there were all these soldiers trapped underground who wanted to help, and he came with his magic boots and led us up to the surface to join the defense of the city."

"Did all of your people join, or were there civilians?"

"We all came up to the surface because if we just left behind those who couldn't fight then they'd get eaten by something. We've got about a hundred sixty here and eighty or so of them are in fighting condition."

"That's very noble of your people, if on your first contact with the surface every able-bodied person volunteered to help fight the worldwound. Are there other neather communities, do you know?"

"We were two hundred eighty, originally, which is our tribe and three neighboring ones. There are some farther that we're not on terms with. Neathers are descended from the first crusaders, we know we were destined to help. ...also the food's better up here."

He smiles. "I imagine it must be, if you're descended from people from the surface. I'm sorry for your losses, was that mostly the demons?"

He shuffles his feet a little. "Mostly."

"Disease or - people who should have been allies?"

"There was a misunderstanding when we first came up into the city. Some folks thought we were the demons, or with them. I didn't know the things to say to them or I expect we could've worked it out."

"I see. Those are always the - most tragic mistakes. When people who should have been on the same side kill each other because nobody knew the right things to say to stop it."

"I didn't know there was such a thing as a way where people talked it out until they tried it again in the Fane and people did know the things to say."

"Yes, I heard about that time - I'm very glad that worked out as well as it did, it sounds like it was almost a catastrophe but in the end someone found the right words and nobody got hurt. Were there a lot of times this came up underground, or was it just when you first came to the surface?"

"Tribes fight sometimes. Over territory, or revenge, or women, or whatever. Sometimes the elders can talk it out but usually before it gets to the point of drawing weapons, or not at all. The Knight-Commander was furious, about what happened when we came to the surface, but it wasn't really surprising."

He is trying to reconcile the image of neathers as people who universally volunteered to fight the worldwound with the image of neathers as people who will fight wars over women. The easiest conclusion to draw is that they just really like fighting, but maybe he's misunderstanding something.

"Over women?"

" - do people on the surface not do that? ...I guess your women stay near the village more so it's less likely someone would grab one?"

"We - have bigger countries. If someone from a village steals a woman from the next village over, they don't have to go to war over it, the woman's relatives will just complain to their village's leader, who will complain to the local lord - or maybe the priest on circuit - and the lord or the church will make the person let the woman go free. We also just don't have a lot of kidnappings like that." Because they are more lawful and civilized than he suspects the neathers are, but saying that would be rude.

He nods. "It's like the Crusade, where we all have one chief because we can't be fighting each other or we'll lose to the demons. But underground you couldn't all have one chief because he'd be too far away to consult on most things, and everyone wouldn't be his relatives, and wouldn't trust him to have any sense."