There is movement along Tahra's clothes and amid her hair. Two black eyes and a stub nose peep out from the red hair resting on the woman's right shoulder.

"I ride my horse, I tumble, I do flips. I can dance too. And sing a little."

She gave a curtsey, then twirled on one foot. Then, she bent almost completely over backwards into a handstand, then flipped back forward to land on her feet with a smile.

For this, Siankiir stayed quiet, thinking it would be better for the faun to take over this parley attempt.  He knew what the members of the troupe were capable of, after all.  If there were translation problems the elf would be ready to assist, but this was not her forte.

"Children," Nakkod says, repeating the word in a sour tone.  "They are not your children, why... but you believe you are doing a good deed, are you not?  I regret to inform you, they are here, healthy and whole living among us.  I say regret, because this means that now our interests are crossed, you to bring them back and me to hold them here, and that is sad.  How much better all things would be if I could simply say no, no children of Humans here."

He gives an intense, focused look.

"But that would be to lie.  We may deceive, we Fey, but we do not lie, and never to our own.  Do you really wish to bring them back?  As long as they are with us, they are insurance against any act of evil the Humans might bring against us, are they not?  And you must know.. Humans can be brutes.  Even when they do not wish to be!"

Alayna's smile faded. "Yes, I know that humans can be brutes," she stated, her voice soft.

She took a deep breath, then stepped a few steps forward. "Are they happy? Are they asking to go home? Although I never knew my parents I still wished to see them, though I knew I never would. But I would know this about them, as keeping a child unhappy is in its own way, brutish. It was not so very long ago that I was a little child. And I was unhappy quite a lot."
This message was last edited by the player at 19:41, Mon 11 Jan 2021.

Nwofia follows the conversation as best she can even though she is only able to do so through body language, perhaps recognising emotions but hearing no words that she recognises.

She whispers to Topaz, "Please could I have some music, plaintively simple.  I'll provide the rhythm such that it is." She stood still as a laurel tree and waited.

Siankiir's brow grew troubled as she took in the words of Nakkod.  "Please, I need to understand first.  Did the children cause any offense to start?  Did they break the rules by accidentally taking gifts left for the fey?  Or, was it by your own initiative that the children be taken in the first place -- in fear of any presumptive attack that the humans might -- might -- do?"

They were working under the assumption that the children did something to offend.  But if the children didn't do anything to warrant their own capture in the first place...

Tahra Takes a deep breath. Lord Nakkod, three questions:

Are you aware of what has happened and is happening west of the Rhein?

Do I understand aright that, one the one hand, the children should stay her because they are healthy and happy and on the other hand, they are hostages against an attack by humans? If so, how would you feel if a fey wandered into a human camp, was captured, and kept drunk—therefore happy—as a hostage against any fey deceits?

I ask this, not to offend—though I deem such questions fair to fall gently on your ears—but as a way to start careful consideration of the situation and of future possibilities.

Always rushing to things, even the Elf.

Such discussions he's found are seldom resolved by aggressive questioning, straight to motive rather than circumstance.  Mortal folk are ever in such a hurry to have things their way.  Individual questions may cleave close to the truth of such things and may sound reasonable to the querent and their perspective.  This reaction, he suspects, was the very reaction Nakkod meant to provoke by way of demonstrating the emotions that run beneath the surface.

The Elvish queens and kings know.  They have some understanding of the destructive impacts of contact with mortals, that even casual interactions can leave things more grey.  They cause the veil between Here and There to be so much wider, less easily travelled through.  To the Baiovari, the issue is one of fear and of lost children.  To Nakkod, it is likely something else entire.

Topaz raises a hand to rest gently on Nwofia's shoulder, then speaks easily in Latin as he believes all to understand that tongue.  "It is a difficult issue, yes.  They are not our children, no, but we do come as envoy to treat on behalf of the Baiovari to see what may be done."

Of concern to the Faun is that the children mayn't want to leave, that having been to this side of the veil between places to return them would be to subject them to a life of banal greys, the cloth all rough as Hessian, all colors muted and washed-out, the savor of all food that of ash and soot.  Returning the children may be exactly the worst thing that can be done.

Nwofia frowned.  "You mean everybody can understand Latin?  I was going to try to speak in Dance but ....  Right folks.  I'm Nwofia.  In my own tongue, it means 'conceived in exile' and so I was.  I come from the other side of the Great Sand Sea.  I'm a long way from home.  In my short life, I have known leopard people and dark elves.  I've performed for orcs, goblins, elves and now we came here to perform for the Baiovari.  That was going to be dangerous enough but now it turns out that's the least of our worries.  Should we perhaps perform for the Fey?  After that, perhaps we will all be in a mood for talking and trying to solve this conundrum?"

Nakkod seems a little shaken...

"The sheer assortment that has come, for three little children of Humans," he says, not finishing the thought.

Tahra, on the other hand, distracts him briefly with one comment:

"West of the Rhine?" Nakkod asks.  He gestures to the river nearby.  "This is the Rhine.  The Rhine is our home.  Elsewhere is of no concern of mine."

Adagia speaks up, but not loudly.  "Humans travel over such great distances.  We do not.  All Fey are part of the the world around them.  It lives in us."

"It is pointless to negotiate for the return of three children," Nakkod says, steering back on track.  Words melt away and leave me with nothing, now I have something.  But for such a... gathering... to come after them is not what I expected.  You do not demand, you have no weapons drawn, most of you are not even Human though you speak for them.  This must mean something.  Therefore, I yield... but not entirely.  I give you a choice, which is more than we give most.  Trade, Game or Quest.  Which path would you take, to bring back these children?"

Tahra looks directly at Nakkod, seeking the eyes.

"I'm uncertain whether everyone does or not, Nwofia.  It's just an attempt at courtesy to all present, using a tongue all can follow."

Afterward, he waits for anyone else to respond to Nakkod, considering the long silence before replying.  "Not all of us are bound to place.  Some wander as far and wide across the land as Sylph with her winds.  We each have our own cynosure, but not all are tied to location."

"As we've said," the Faun adds, "we perform.  Song, dance, music, dramatic recitation, plays, and such."

He glances to his companions, then back to Nakkod.  "Of concern is the health of the children.  The falls, they are lovely, and it's expected your hospitality, the living and victuals of equal quality.  Their folk live a rude and sometimes mean existence.  Should they return, will they find all color drained from the world and all the food to taste of ash?"

He knows his folk don't always think or feel like mortal species.  However a boon is gained of them, it may come at the cost of something one didn't wish to give and the boon itself may turn into something not truly desired.

Nakkod looks a little annoyed by Topaz's question.

"I think it's a fair thing to know," Adagia says quietly.

"You know these things are enchantments or gross exaggerations," Nakkod says.  "We have not enchanted them to despise their world.  But if living in ours affects them, I cannot help it."

"Yes, there are Humans who cannot get our world out of their memories," Adagia says.  "Some of them suffer for it.  Some of them become the greatest mortal artists, or magicians, or become druids.  If I have inspired a mortal... or if you have.. is it wrong?  Nakkod could put them into a deep sleep, and when they awaken their memories would be gone.  Then there would be no chance.  But they would also have forgotten all about us, and everything they saw and did here.  Would that be fair?"

"I can do this," Nakkod confirms.  "The choice would be yours to make.  But only IF you have earned their return.  There can be no return with your agreement to a path.  But if you are performers, as you say.. then if a quest is chosen it is only right that it is one performers can face."

"What if it is the Dwarves of the Lake?" Adagia asks.  "You know how they've been unmoved by my songs.  What if they must make music that wins their favor, and gold.  Gold for us...you know we need it... the children go to their homes."

"Are you with them or with us?" Nakkod asks Adagia.

Tahra, about to speak, politely waits until after Adagia answers.

Nwofia, not about to speak, smiles silently at the word 'dwarves'.  They haven't performed for Dwarves yet.

It troubled Siankiir that Nakkod did not deign to answer about the full circumstances of the children's abduction.

"Should we succeed, it should be left to the children if they wish to remember or not."

As for this "quest", well, that was for the troupe to decide.

Alayna frowned. "So we must make music for them? In exchange for gold for you? That seems unfair to me. One or the other. We get gold by whatever means, then you give us the children. Our music should not be a decider. Even for even, as my adopted mother said. Fair is fair. Are you fair?"

She had stood up to all of her slight and petite height to glare.

Again, the Faun steps forward to gently touch a companion on the shoulder, gesturing for calm.  Gently, he says, "Be at peace, Alayna.  Emotions have power to bend the land around us.  Passion for or about a thing can be answered in the most unexpected of ways.  Also, it is, perhaps, not as easy as the gold and children and fairness."

Topaz glances briefly at Nakkod, then back to Alayna.  He says to her, though it's clear he's speaking to all, "It's likely a bargain was once struck, a boon asked and received in return for a promise.  Whether this group of Baiovari made that bargain, some remember and they honor that agreement.  When the children did what they did, it is quite likely they broke the arrangement.  The Baiovari still have benefit of that boon, but Nakkod and the others here not the Baiovari's end of it in return."

Quietly he adds, "The reasons why are many and difficult to explain, but it is not a situation which could be left without redress.  To simply give the children to us could cause great harm."

"We would perform for the Dour Folk, if it will win the children free and unharmed in this world or theirs.  Our art to the Dwarves for their Rhein gold, their gold to you in exchange for the children without encumbrance?  Will this redress the wrongs, Nakkod?"

Nokkad is taken aback by Alayna.

For a moment he gives her a look.

"She's right, it breaks with long standing tradition," Adagia says.

"If I desire a thing for myself it matters not you achieve it," Nokkad says, as if reciting to himself.  "If I desire you to do a thing it matters not what comes of it.  It seems beneath us, though, to merely set a price in gold, as if we are peddlers to haggle with over a coin or two."

He takes a deep breath.

"I rescind my demand for the gold.  Perhaps we have enough as it is.  My terms are merely that you open the hearts of the Dwarves, open them to beauty beyond polishing their armor and reveling in the grandeur of stone towers.  They are not an evil folk, but they see little to praise in song and dance, and the natural beauty around them is ignored.  All these things you know that we favor greatly.  I have no doubt that if you uplift them, the result will be to our benefit... at least as much as the services of three Human children."

"Well that's a price more befitting a Fossegrim  lord," Adagia says.  "Dwarves have such egos, they are blind to us.  And deaf."

Nakkad asks you to follow him a short ways along the river.  But quietly, he does not wish the Human children to know that others have come to return them.  "That would set up conflicting desires," he explains, "which would bring only pain.  But you can see them, they are playing in the river.  We are teaching them the ways of Water."

Tahra remarks Nobly thought through, assuming my opinion is worth the hearing. Then, when the group is walking, she asks Lady Adagia and Lord Nokkad, deaf, for now, to some things the dwarves may be, are they deaf to honest praise?

Nwofia still says nothing.  She loves the idea of performing for the dwarves especially if they are considered too dour to appreciate art.  She knows thy will provide something that will make them appreciate.  That will be beautiful.

Nakkod smiles at Tahra.   "I think praise is all some of them wish to listen to, honest or not," he says.

"They can't all be like that," Adagia says.  "Surely not."

"Some, I said," Nakkod clarifies.

They halt among large boulders, on a rocky rise overlooking the tumbling water just downstream of the waterfall.  With a gesture, Nakkod creates a cloud of shimmering fog.  A strange one, though- it only blocks vision from one side.  Step behind it, and it is barely visible as a slight mist in the air.  And that, only in bright sunlight, where the light plays off the tiny drops of water.

He points.  There are five children, and several others of Nakkods' and Adagia's... tribe?  (What does one call a group of water spirit people?).  A brief observation reveals that of the five children, two, perhaps, belong to the water beings.  They look Human enough, or perhaps Elven or mixed, at a distance, with them all in the rushing water, it is hard to tell.  But it is easy to see that two of them react to the water differently.  The strong swirls and currents don't seem to affect them at all.  They might as well be on dry land, experiencing nothing more than a gentle breeze.

As for the others... it is clear they affected by the physical force of the water.  But strangely, not nearly as much as they ought to be.  Currents like that should carry small children away.  They are playing in it.  Body surfing, swimming... no fear, no sense of danger.

Tahra considers this. Then it seems to me that appreciation, honesty, and neighborliness are three supports for the outcome I'm guessing you want.

Siankiir dropped to a crouch to watch the children better.  A brief pang of envy gnawed at her gut at how genuinely happy the children appeared to be as they played in the water.

...but is it genuine...?