#earthrunes

"I could have saved her." with vicious quiet.

"Explain fully, as thou might to a child, for a fear I understand poorly. Tis a Pooka's bane, we never truly understand on first happenstance."

His voice, friendly, and companionable. Perhaps a touch of confusion, but utterly without judgement.

"I should have... If I could have used magic, or something, even just yanked ... Minerva... away. So that...." his lip curls in a sneer "if -she- could have been stopped. Just a little? Or a lot? If I could have stopped it.....that would have been better."

"And then? What becomes of the other?"

"Don't care."

"It is a grave position, to choose who may live and who must die." Solemn.

"You didn't see it. She begged. She........" Adam looks away, but doesn't abandon Vince. "We were just flirting. It was good, right? We were.... and then this.... I don't know. She showed up and then Minerva was begging, and she was gone."

"Perhaps better, if the mortal had evaded. Then it may have been the sidhe who begged against the cold, tattering and frayed, until the chill of autumn tore the fabric asunder and she was no more." A sorrowful sigh.

"Yeah." Adam sounds solidly convinced that would have been ok.

"Is it thy tie to the girl who was lost, that convinces thou so? If thou have come upon a lost and hurting sidhe essense - seeking - in need - desperate for haven - and the mortal a stranger, think now, a moment. Wouldst thy action have differed?"

"I......" He stops, thinking. Confused.

Ever patient.

"Does she beg? Or take?"

"What do you call people who take without consent?"

"If thou were put in a battle to the death - wouldst thou lay down thy life for the stranger, be it he or thee?" Answering a question with a question. "If you slew the other, are you a villain? If he slew you, is he? Yes, and Yes, to whom you ask. To thy family. To his family. Wherein does the true villainy lie? In the opponents, only one who may survive? Or in the master who orchestrated the battle to their whim?"

Adam shakes his head.

"I was there. I know what I saw."

"For a sidhe to take a host is a terrible thing." Shaking his head. "So too, for any to steal from another. Yet the deer does not loathe the wolf that hunts at the edge of the meadow and takes life's blood with tooth and claw. Nor does the wolf loathe the deer that escapes and leaves hollow-ribs and winter's death. The Sidhe that return are from another world. They are wise, and incredible - and naive, and as children. An animal knows not morality. Nor does a child. They grasp for what they need, and take as they will - for they know not else to do. It is only by learning, that one may be more than a beast - and become a Man." Softly.

"It is not right. It is not fair. But it is the nature of sidhe. If you would hate this new soul for what it has done, it is to hate all that have done so. And that will poison thy own self, which would bring sorrow to many."

"I can't talk about what anyone else did. I wasn't there." Woodenly "But I was there for this, and it was wrong. She begged. She -begged-. If that's what Sidhe have to do.... I don't want to be one. Not like that. Not... by force."

"Some sidhe may never grow wings of morality. Still others may spend their lives bowed, self-chained under the burden of that which they have done, fresh and unknowing - uncomprehending of the consequences of their first gasp for breath and grasp for life." A hand on his shoulder. "Thou art blessed with not having to make that choice, nor suffer so."

"Yeah. I'm not Fae."

"Thou? Thou are not a sidhe cast upon the mortal world, to take or die. That is what thou art not. What thou ART shall be far more interesting to discover."

Adam rankles.

"Why must thy hackles raise? Pray, how have I pricked thy paw? If a thorn lies in my garden of verse, it is placed by chance, and not by purpose."

"Everyone says how I'm interesting, but no one has any idea how.... "

"And is that not a mystery? Ah, I -do- love a mystery... what laugh might lie behind that sad lady's frown? What stories of her past? What intrigues delight her, what jests may fail and turn her back to thee? To grow closer - to fall further away. It is a game, a dance... a thousand thousand tiny mysteries into one greater. If something is worth finding, it is worth earning, throughout the pain, the frustration and the setbacks, a Lion doth proclaim. But, tis only one's own visage. After all, one could just BORROW a pair of lace-ed undercloth if thy wished to hang it upon the bedpost. But that is losing out on the joy of discovery."

And he cannot help a rakish grin. "Someday, friend Adam, I shall see what color thy briefs are! And in sooth, that I all I know."

"I ... don't... I mean.... Ok, first, I'm not weird about guy-on-guy. And I don't need to borrow, you know, trophies for bed. I am who I am."

"That you most certainly are." He agrees.

And he will walk with Adam for a time more, until one or the other has something pressing or someplace to be...