Gwenvair froze at that, thoughtful, “That seems… to be true.”

“So… the act itself is not enough?”

“I… before this moment, I would have said no, but now…”

Joe fell silent at that, accepting the end of the conversation but fell into introspection for a bit. Then… not just the act… something else… which makes sense. Matches up better with what happened to Zilnek. Maybe two things… maybe three? Kind of can guess two right now. Commit a crime and admit to it. But… is that enough? Or… maybe… three: commit a crime, admit to it, and feel guilty over it. Zilnek really was feeling guilty… or just bad about being caught? Hmm.. but something… something close to it? But… His thoughts came to an end, unable to find any other clues or possible further observations and he turned his focus back to Gwenvair.

“Then, anything else you might think is important for me to know on criminals?”

Gwenvair proved diligent and carefully thought before shaking her head, “No. I truly believe I have given you what I know.”

“Then, thank you. Let’s continue. Can I ask about nobility?”

“Of course.”

“How does one become a noble?”

Gwenvair’s eyes rose at that, “You wish to become a clanner?’

“No. Definitely not,” Joe smiled with a slightly mocking look.

Gwenvair’s smile grew at that and she laughed in reply, “You truly have no fear.”

Joe shrugged, “Hmm… I have fear, but you are a very… enlightened and kind clanner, so… I do not fear you. Another fool or arrogant individual who would … use their power abusively? They… they are to be feared. Then removed from power.”

Gwenvair’s eyebrows shot up through her bangs, “Removed from power?”

“My people have an… expectation that the people of our clan are all members, equally. And if the leadership of the clan fails or is foolish, the people are expected… even demanded to rise up and remove the leadership by violence and force, if necessary.”

Gwenvair’s calm demeanor evaporated at that, heavy breathing quickly rising to panting as she stared at Joe in fear, slowly rising to her feet. Joe kept his demeanor calm, but did smile back at her with calm confidence. She continued to stand there, staring at him and Joe finally decided he needed to reboot the poor girl.

“Why are you afraid?”

Gwenvair’s mouth twitched but said nothing and Joe actually grew concerned, cocking his head to the side before continuing, “You really are afraid? Why are you? You and your mother are excellent examples of leadership. You would never be removed … not according to my people’s view of leadership and power.”

Gwenvair seemed to breathe at that, but still stared at him fearfully. Joe groaned and continued.

“You do not need to fear me. I… why are you afraid of me? Of what I said?”

“You admitted to overthrowing the power in control of a clan!”

Joe snorted, “I never overthrew any clan! I simply stated that the founding members of our clan stated that the people should do so, if the leaders proved incompetent or evil.”

Gwenvair blinked at that, “So… you will not… overthrow my mother and I?”

Joe’s face fluctuated through surprise, worry, humor, and then settled on concern, “I wouldn’t do so… even if you and your mother were incompetent. Maybe if you were evil? Maybe? But… it would be… I wouldn’t likely do it, no.”

Gwenvair calmed as he spoke and looked at him while slowly returning to her seat, “Then… why?”

“Why? Why what?”

“I… uh… I don’t know.. just.. why?”

Still a bit shellshocked? I guess? “Hmm… why would I fight against the leaders of my own clan? Because to allow them to be evil is just as evil as the evil they are committing. By not stopping them, especially if I have the power, I allow the evil they commit. I would be… fairly evil then as well.

“Why do I not overthrow you or your mother? Because this is not my home or country? You would have to be truly despicable for me to simply invade your country … uh clan… and overthrow you. This is not my home nor my place. I would do so in my home and clan because I have the right to influence and change my own home and clan. But to walk into another’s home and clan and force my … my views, values… it is both… counter-productive and may possibly lead to more evil.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“If I enforce my way on you against your will, you and your people will not be grateful, but instead angry and upset. At best, I should attempt to speak and convince you through honest debate, showing you a better way. If you change then, you do so because you are willing and not because I have forced my way upon you.

“As I said, you would have to be… very evil to cause me to destroy you… or, uh… maybe attack my … clan first, I guess. If you choose to fight us, then we will fight back.”

Gwenvair stared at Joe, the alien thoughts running riot through her mind as she struggled to understand. The tension, however, did ebb and she finally calmed down and blurted out her reply.

“You are… strange!”

Joe guffawed in reply, “I would agree with your assertion, but in this case, how am I strange? My views are pretty common amongst my people.”

“You feel… you can fight against your own people to control evil but not against others to control evil.”

“Aahh,” Joe sighed at that and nodded, “That’s… a hard one. I think many of my people originally did as you said. We simply and arbitrarily demanded they change, forcing them to no longer do what we considered evil. For many, it was a good change, but the arbitrary nature of the change… the demands… these things made people unhappy or angry even if good came of it. And even then, not every one of our people are good. Some are… very evil themselves and do well to hide it. They also enter these same count… clans and while as a people, we try to do good, sometimes individuals can be quite evil themselves. These two things make it so that the people we’re trying to ‘help’ often become more upset and angry than happy at our intervention, especially if we enter as a clan.

“Now, there are some people who enter simply as visitors, not with the full might of the clan behind them. Then they try to help and teach the people. These people are often successful because they come in with little to no power and are often of close to equal power to those living around them. People are more willing to listen to a neighbor and friend than to the governme… uh… what’s an equivalent here… maybe a clan warrior?”

Gwenvair actually paused at that, thinking deeply before nodding her head slowly, “Maybe… maybe… I would have to think more carefully on this. I am not… so certain of this.”

Joe laughed, “Of course. These ideas are really quite… radical, to be honest. It took us quite some time to learn of them ourselves. But we did and learned, changing as best we could within the bounds of understanding.”

Gwenvair nodded at that, “You grew.”

“Hmm. Exactly. Not perfectly, but we grew.”

“So you stopped invading people?”

Joe smirked at that and chuckled, “Hmm. Yes, although … maybe in a sense of foolish irony, we now sneak in to do things to control. As I said, not all of our people are good. There are still some who are… yeah.”

Gwenvair’s good humor returned and she chuckled, “Spies, then.”

“Yup.”

“So your moral high ground is to hide it behind a façade of apparent good?”

“Now who’s the snarky one?” Joe sniped right back and Gwenvair giggled almost manically as her calm returned.

Joe immediately sat forward, but did not reach out to her and spoke sincerely, “I apologize if I scared or worried you. I had no intention to do so. Nor do I have any intention against your city or clan. I actually like you and your mom. Both of you are pretty amazing people.”

Gwenvair clenched her teeth but nodded, “I… am grateful.”

Joe rolled his eyes, “I’m not sure why you are so worried, but don’t be. I’d much rather be friends with you.”

Gwenvair relaxed even further, “Friends?”

Joe shrugged, “My people are very informal.”

Gwenvair paused at that, struggling slightly over what to say next but Joe allowed her the time. When she did reply, Joe immediately understood the risk she was taking, but laughed heartily in joy that she did so.

“I couldn’t tell.”

Joe’s laughter rebounded around the room, his head thrown back in honest joy. When Joe settled back down and looked across the table at Gwenvair, he saw the smirk of joy on her face and he settled.

“Feeling a bit better?”

“And you had to break the mood and point it out,” her reply was sharper.

His smile grew, “Good. You are.”

She sighed deeply, her smile growing slightly as she nodded, “I am. Thank you.”

“Well. I do apologize for startling you. Don’t worry. I’m not going to go marching around town and trying to teach your citizens about how my people believe the citizens should have the right to revolt against bad clanners.”

Her good mood quickly evaporated at that as a look of alarm quickly rose, “No. Please don’t!”

Joe sighed then chuckled in chagrin, “I told you not to worry about that… why are you acting worried now.”

Gwenvair opened her mouth to shoot back a biting remark but then quickly stopped when she parsed his statement. A few moments later she sighed and shook her head.

“OK. Yeah. You got me there.”

Joe’s smile was slightly more relieved, “In any case, please do not be concerned about me. If anything, I would support you and your mother. You seem good leaders.”

Gwenvair actually smiled brightly at that, nodding, “Then… on behalf of my mother, we are quite grateful.”

“Good. Please, understand. I speak of these ideas only to teach and hope you may grow and become greater.”

That statement seemed simple but Gwenvair paused at that then realized exactly what it meant, the last few moments of their discourse slamming home as she realized that he was doing exactly as he described.

“You… hope to teach me and my mother… to grow… just like…”

Joe’s smile was genuine this time, a revelation directly from his heart and he said nothing as he did so, simply watching the revelation flower through her mind. She took a moment to explore the ramifications before looking back at Joe in a bit of shock.

“You’re doing it now!”

Joe’s increased smile and single nod was his reply.

“But the ideas are so… dangerous!?”

Joe’s smile grew to a grin, “Are they? To your clan… at this moment, possibly. But then, why do you think I speak to you of them?”

Gwenvair paused at that, wrestling with the ideas and his latest statement. She looked up at him, staring but had no response. Joe continued.

“And in any case, are the ideas dangerous if you are the one to know them? And who would be the one best able to know their own clan and people and thus best able to reveal these ‘dangerous’ ideas to your people in the best and safest way to develop and help your clan grow?”

That shook Gwenvair to her core and the table fell silent for almost ten minutes. Joe allowed her the time and turned to Kilniara to whisper and chat quietly as they waited for Gwenvair. After a time, she finally returned from her thoughts with a deep sigh and a dangerous gleam in her eye, intense and greedy.

“You are a dangerous… dangerous man.”