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May is rolling her way to the library. It's not icy - in point of fact it's summer - but she's got an unhappy ankle from tripping yesterday and it's an accessible library and it's downhill on the way there and Ren will pick her up after. So, rolling.
a may in the moon kingdom
of-secret-night
"You may wait outside," she says to the other creatures. They retreat, with varying reluctance. The door closes behind them.
It's very quiet in here.
of-secret-night
Her posture shifts to something less majestic and more... conversational, attentive. Perhaps also tired.
"What have you heard about the war?"
maybeso
"It's... close enough to eternal as to make no subjective difference to the participants..." She pulls out a notebook. "...predictably seasonal, avoidable at least on this side by moving to the mountains, seems to use an all-volunteer army, not harmless but my vague impression is that it is still more harmless than the average war from my world, not over any apparent strategic objectives or economic motives or anything more concrete than ingrained cultural opposition to one another, partisan by species, and, uh, mysteriously beloved of its participants."
maybeso
"I thought you should issue a conditional surrender around the end of fall, optionally with subsequent immigration afterwards, but it doesn't work very well if your army is going to hate it and break ceasefire."
of-secret-night
The Queen nods thoughtfully.
"I can see why that would have seemed like a good idea, but yes, it does have the problems you describe."
of-secret-night
"Problems that seem simple at first glance often turn out to be trickier at second or third."
of-secret-night
"The war of Night and Day has been going on since this world was made, and I am very, very tired of it. But ending it will not be a simple task."
maybeso
"Is it just a matter of the army not being likely to cooperate? You don't seem to have standard chains of command, admittedly, but they're your army, you could probably shuffle them around some."
of-secret-night
She tilts her head thoughtfully and regards May from across the very long room.
"No," she says, after a pause. "It is not just that."
maybeso
"I'm not really sure how best to extrapolate from the characteristics of a magical dualist Canadian-kidnapping flatland and I'm also not sure why you're asking me."
of-secret-night
"I'm interested in your perspective," she says. "New perspectives are often very valuable."
maybeso
"Is that why even though outworlders show up every few centuries or so everyone still knows to bring them to you earliest convenience?"
of-secret-night
"It's among the reasons, yes. I also find that sometimes they have trouble adjusting. Everyone else in my Kingdom is as well provided for as I can manage; I would like to be able to offer guests as much, and I can't do that if I don't know they're here."