Or right back to Mallia. Or the both of them. Or everyone could simply wash their hands of it....
"Well, if you'd like to try... elves and humans are practically kin, the way donkeys and horses are. Fairies are kin to butterflies. Dragons and unicorns and ents, those are fae too. Fae means immortal. It's one whose very soul holds their magic, and sustains what makes them them long after they've died. It's part of why I can't be a fairy, despite the fairy over there currently being an elf."
"You're complicating things...."
"Nonsense. You called me here to help explain, didn't you?" He held out a hand, open, and turned it over for Harry to see. It looked... well, like any hand, when it came to it. Aside from their eyes and ears, Mallia and Sia could both pass quite easily for humans. "What I mean, which your friend was not catching on about, is that I'm well and truly beyond that point."
"Love." Mallia's tone was quite firm, enough to make him blink and look up at her, losing his conspiratorial smile for a moment.
But he didn't argue. A sigh, and he withdrew his hand. "...Fine. My ultimate point is, being a fairy or an elf or one of any of the other fae kinds... it's a matter of what one was originally born as. We all have more in common than most humans would believe, despite our very different original bodies. But it's that very difference that some of our kin take such pride in. No offense, but a butterfly learning to don the guise of a comparative giant...." He made a face while eyeing Mallia, something of an apologetic wince. "It doesn't exactly speak to the sorts of trials and hardships, the deaths one must die, sometimes repeatedly and quite traumatically, to be able to fit oneself into the form of one of the other kinds. However unwitting, a dismissal of the horrors so often inflicted upon us by the humans of our world..." He sank down in his chair again, sighing, "...and such a dismissal by a human, at that... Calling it 'insult upon both grave personal, and systemic, world-ending injury' hardly scrapes the surface. The humans in my world... well, individually, they always were fine enough, but as a whole? Human kind was, at least as of some centuries ago, without exception, the absolute worst thing to invade Europe, bar none.
"So if all of this confusion is somehow innocent, then it's incredibly unfortunate. And if it isn't... If her friend was actually from our world... then with what he's put into her head, and what it's likely to lead to, depending on who she meets... let's just say, I suspect he must not have liked her very much."
Mallia was quiet, rubbing her head. "Humans, mice, wolves, and horses are all land-creatures, but not all land-creatures are cats," she said. "She's insisting that everything on land is a mouse."
"And mice may be all right with that, but a wolf could be quite furious." Sia shook his head. "I don't suppose more examples of different kin would help inspire other ways of presenting this all to her...? There's me, certainly, and there's her... but...?" He looked from Mallia to Harry.
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"Well, if you'd like to try... elves and humans are practically kin, the way donkeys and horses are. Fairies are kin to butterflies. Dragons and unicorns and ents, those are fae too. Fae means immortal. It's one whose very soul holds their magic, and sustains what makes them them long after they've died. It's part of why I can't be a fairy, despite the fairy over there currently being an elf."
"You're complicating things...."
"Nonsense. You called me here to help explain, didn't you?" He held out a hand, open, and turned it over for Harry to see. It looked... well, like any hand, when it came to it. Aside from their eyes and ears, Mallia and Sia could both pass quite easily for humans. "What I mean, which your friend was not catching on about, is that I'm well and truly beyond that point."
"Love." Mallia's tone was quite firm, enough to make him blink and look up at her, losing his conspiratorial smile for a moment.
But he didn't argue. A sigh, and he withdrew his hand. "...Fine. My ultimate point is, being a fairy or an elf or one of any of the other fae kinds... it's a matter of what one was originally born as. We all have more in common than most humans would believe, despite our very different original bodies. But it's that very difference that some of our kin take such pride in. No offense, but a butterfly learning to don the guise of a comparative giant...." He made a face while eyeing Mallia, something of an apologetic wince. "It doesn't exactly speak to the sorts of trials and hardships, the deaths one must die, sometimes repeatedly and quite traumatically, to be able to fit oneself into the form of one of the other kinds. However unwitting, a dismissal of the horrors so often inflicted upon us by the humans of our world..." He sank down in his chair again, sighing, "...and such a dismissal by a human, at that... Calling it 'insult upon both grave personal, and systemic, world-ending injury' hardly scrapes the surface. The humans in my world... well, individually, they always were fine enough, but as a whole? Human kind was, at least as of some centuries ago, without exception, the absolute worst thing to invade Europe, bar none.
"So if all of this confusion is somehow innocent, then it's incredibly unfortunate. And if it isn't... If her friend was actually from our world... then with what he's put into her head, and what it's likely to lead to, depending on who she meets... let's just say, I suspect he must not have liked her very much."
Mallia was quiet, rubbing her head. "Humans, mice, wolves, and horses are all land-creatures, but not all land-creatures are cats," she said. "She's insisting that everything on land is a mouse."
"And mice may be all right with that, but a wolf could be quite furious." Sia shook his head. "I don't suppose more examples of different kin would help inspire other ways of presenting this all to her...? There's me, certainly, and there's her... but...?" He looked from Mallia to Harry.