( there's a joke to be made here — I've met too many mages to think that, for example. it is not out of the question that stephen will hear a version of it, later, when she recounts her day at the end of it, and then I didn't say that, because in the moment it probably would have been a cunt thing to do, hold for applause.

funny because it's true, mind. but the blood purity aspect, that is grimly familiar in an entirely different way, the way she smiles humourless but not without some warmth. there are parts of gwenaëlle that she has, of necessity, made into weapons; it isn't the same song, here, but it rhymes.

and this isn't, exactly, the thing she'd intended to tell when she'd said I'll show you mine (what wrenched her off course? a rage demon,) but it rhymes, )

To be elfblooded is to have one elven parent, one human. Elfblooded aren't like the half-elven some rifters talk about, ( apparently every other fucking world or dream with elves, ain't that a bitch of a thing, ) we're completely indistinguishable from any other human. There's no means I know of to tell me apart from someone whose parents were both human— but it's not quite human enough. Orlais's civil war had academics writing treatises on is it bestiality to fuck your elf servants, not even because they believe it is or give a fuck but because embarrassing the Empress by insinuating she's too friendly with elves works so well she keeps slaughtering them about it.

( if that sounds like it's probably got a lot more moving parts than she can easily cover in one bitter breath,

yeah. )

When my uncle was in the Circle, his particular study was why are the elfblooded like that. Became an expert in maternal health by accident because he wanted to study the pregnancies of elven women carrying human children. He didn't know I was, at the time, it was a very funny coincidence.

( —dryly. )

And then if he'd had a child, that'd have been about seven crimes. I have wondered how many orphan Templars were the children of Circle mages. Probably not none.