Their eyes narrowed. “Only the Life Mages, then. You can’t honestly expect any of us to accept carnalions in our districts!”
Brannal interjected. Maybe he could tell that Cormal was about to lose his temper. Or perhaps he was just demonstrating why he should have this position. “Carnalions already live in your districts. At the present time, they are in hiding and trying to survive. We’ve long known that they’re able to go among us unnoticed, and unfortunately, old rhetoric prevented us from admitting what that meant. Many of them quietly live their lives without harming anyone.”
“They feed on people!” someone yelped from the bottom row—had it been the seventh councilor?
Cormal should probably have been paying more attention, but it was hard not to lump them all together as obstructive jerks.
“They feed on sexual energy,” Perian corrected patiently. “That’s something we release when we’re aroused and when we reach completion. The consumption of that energy isn’t inherently dangerous.”
This caused an explosion of sound as all the councilors had something to say about that. All at once.
“Quiet!”
With obvious reluctance, they obeyed their queen.
“It’s true that carnalions and Life Mages are capable of killing people,” Perian admitted.
There was another rush of sound that was quelled with a clearing of the throat from the Queen. She gestured for Perian to continue.
Perian’s expression was intent, his gaze stern. “It’s equally true that Mages are capable of killing people. As are Warriors and Wardens and regular citizens. Can some of those people do so more easily than others? Of course. Does that mean we should judge them before they’ve committed a crime? Based purely on the fact that theycould? We never apply such standards toElemental Mages, Warriors, or Wardens. We therefore request that you treat carnalions and Life Mages the same way.”
There were a lot of unhappy expressions in the room, but for the first time since this had been brought before them, some of the councilors looked more thoughtful than angry or scared.
Kinan smoothly continued. “We’re not asking that carnalions and Life Mages be given free rein. They would be subject to the same laws as other citizens. If they commit a crime, they would be tried for it. But we’re asking that you cease to preemptively judge them guilty.”
The old man from the ninth district looked over at Brannal and Cormal. His hair had gone almost completely white. His shoulders were just starting to stoop, but his dark eyes were fierce. While all the council members wore the long robes of office, Cormal thought that the ninth councilor’s were particularly—and unnecessarily—ornate. They were blood red silk brocade with an unreasonable amount of gold thread. His round gender beads were gold with what Cormal was afraid were probably little rubies to match. They glittered as he moved his head. Actually, all of him glittered.
Angrily, the ninth councilor demanded, “How can you be all right with this? You’ve hunted demons your whole life!”
“We have,” Brannal answered gravely. “And we’ve lost friends and colleagues as a result of some of these fights. We’re not saying that all demons are good. Further discussion with carnalions has reinforced our correct opinion that wraiths especially are not capable of higher reasoning. They will only seek to assuage their hunger, and unfortunately, completely consuming human life energy is the only way for them to do that. Nightmares are capable of killing humans, but it seems their natural state is more peaceful. With further study, we may be able to better manage our interactions with them to reduce any loss of life.”
He stared the man down. “But there is no doubt whatsoever that carnalions are highly reasoning beings on par with human intelligence. They’re capable of complex decision-making. They aren’t human, but they’re able to restrain themselves from their baser urges, just like humans are. We’ve hunted them our whole lives. It’s possible that we’ve correctly stopped those who have gone bad the same way that some humans do.” Brannal’s expression was grave. “It’s equally possible that we’ve driven desperate carnalions to desperate acts as they tried to protect themselves. I’ll have to live with that for the rest of my life. The burden will be a little easier to bear if I can advocate for changes moving forward.”
The man stuck out his chin stubbornly. “And what would your dead friends and colleagues think of that?”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Cormal
Perian stiffened at Brannal’s side.
With an appearance of calm, Brannal said, “We’ll never know for certain, because they’re dead, but I like to think that if they learned there was a way to prevent future senseless killings, where their friends and colleagues were safer and less likely to die, then they’d be all for it.”
“You’re asking us to accept demons who tried to kill us!”
It was the woman from the sixth district this time.
Perian responded, “Andweare being asked to expose ourselves to people who have tried to kill us for centuries. Life Magic has been lost for a reason. You may be angry or scared, but so are the Life Mages and carnalions on the other end of the equation. It will not be easy, but this is a chance to change that for both sides.”
Kinan jumped in. “In addition to growing to a place where this means our citizens will have less to be frightened of, there are also material benefits to humans. Perian and Trill have already helped heal multiple people, including me, my sister Larenia, Molun, and Sopellan. This is the kind of healing that we’ve not seen for centuries, and it’s something we should be fighting to preserve.”
Kinan went on to explain the nature of each of the injuries and how Trill and Perian had been able to completely heal all of them. Sopellan and Molun were brought in so that everyone could gawk at them, and the doctor came with them so that she could corroborate what Kinan had said. The councilors had all spent time with Molun in the last few months and had seen how much trouble he’d had getting around. They didn’t all know Sopellan, but most had heard of him—and some of them had seen him when he had one fewer limb.
There was a lot of shock on those faces. They had clearly not expected something this extreme. Some of them looked… calculating now.
“This is a finite resource that belongs to the people who wield the magic,” Cormal interjected, making sure his voice was stern as he stared the councilors in the eyes one by one. “These people get to choose what they want to do with their life, and they can’t heal constantly. Like Elemental Mages, their magic has limits, and it can be depleted. But hopefully this gives you an idea ofhow beneficial our proposed changes could be. There is an entire branch of magic that was nearly snuffed out when we decided to fear all demons above common sense. These people fear for their lives constantly, or are sometimes unaware of what they can do because they’ve been so hidden. We have the chance to change that, to allow them to learn and grow and be able to do this freely. Surely, that is something we want.”
They let Sopellan and Molun escape. Molun made a face at him as he left, and Cormal tried not to laugh—and not to wish desperately that he could follow.
