"Both of you take a look

and tell me what you make of this," I said, as I handed the Foxspell to Vernier.  She held it open while Burnside got dressed, and they skimmed through it together.

"This is interestin," Burnside muttered.  "I wasn't raised Mephitist, but Fuma seems all right.  She likes the same things I like:  Venery and killin."

"She also seems to have quite a sense of humor," Vernier added.

"What language is the book written in?" I asked.

"Standard Elvish," Burnside answered.

"It's mostly English," Vernier stated. "Is English the same as Elvish?  The 'lorem ipsum' parts resemble Wolfish.  However, it's nonsense.  These words don't mean anything."

"Which section is written in Wolfish?" I inquired.

"Well, as I said, it's not really Wolfish - and I am by no means an expert in that language - but the first few pages are written entirely in pseudo-Wolfish gibberish."

"What are you talkin' about?" Burnside interjected.  "That was a real attention-gettin' intro, with Reynard describin' the carnage of the battlefield."

"Are you certain?  Oh!" Vernier flipped back to the front of the book.  "I could have sworn this was all nonsense, but now, yes ... yuck ... it is a rather graphic description.  Where then was the nonsense passage I saw?"  She flipped back and forth a few pages before declaring "It's gone."

"How about this?" I asked, flipping to the hymn that had stopped Rebecca.

"That's in pseudo-Wolfish," Vernier declared. "Maybe that's the passage I saw, but I could have sworn it was right in the front of the book."

"What do you see there, Burnside?"

"High in heaven the Lady sat," Burnside read.  "She sat and spun as there she sat, and as she sat and spun, she sang.  First she sang a single thing.  The simple stone she sang: Become!  And from her song the stone became.  The stone she sang she sat and spun, she spun the stone upon her wheel ... this is boring."

"Do you see all of that now?" I asked Vernier.

"No.  It still says 'lorem ipsum dolor sit amet' and so on."

I thanked the femmes and took the book from them.

This was odd.  Burnside could obviously read the whole thing, which made sense because she was an elf.  Vernier apparently could read parts of it, but for some reason she could access less of it than Rebecca could.  Did this mean the silly rabbit was more attuned to elfly things?  Why couldn't it have been Vernier instead?  Ah well, it probably meant that Rebecca was a valuable asset, if I could figure out a way to make her less daft.

My thoughts were interrupted as a butterfly flitted past, and I flinched.  What horrible destruction was it wreaking in some faraway place at this very moment?  Did it LOOK at me, as it fluttered by?  I definitely was going to have to keep my eye on these butterflies.  They could be a more dangerous foe than the Duchess of Daisies!  But if I could persuade them to work for me...

I strolled back to where Rebecca was sitting, seemingly meditating, and squatted next to her.

"So tell me, My Lord," she said, opening her eyes.  "How is Fuma different from a typical war god?  Our Cosmic Ram, you know, used to be a tribal war god.  He's not even ours, because he's a Ram and we are rabbits.  He shed plenty of blood on behalf of his original tribe in the Ancient Chronicle, but at the beginning of the More Recent Chronicle he sired the Blessed Baby Bunny on the Virgin Bunny Mama, and fatherhood seemed to turn him into a real lame-o.  The Reverends insist he is all about nurturing and caring and being nice, but those were definitely not on his list of priorities in the old days.  Whenever I pointed out how the Cosmic Ram had changed, they would get mad and put me in detention.  They say he is eternal and unchanging and has always been the same ... well if that's the case he must still love a good massacre.  Saying things like that would get me DOUBLE detention.  You wouldn't believe their reaction when I pointed out that the Ram seemed to be fond of begetting."

"Uh ... I guess Fuma is kind of like that," I answered reluctantly.  "But she never became a 'lame-o.'  She is the goddess of passions, which include war and venery.  She rules over creation as well as destruction, because life and death are a cycle.  They are complimentary forces.  New life springs forth from the decay of old dead things.  However, the Seelie tend to focus on the bright, warm, creative side."

"So then," Rebecca replied.  "It is the duty of us Unseelie to counterbalance that by bringing darkness, wreaking havoc, and sowing chaos in every way we can.  Somebody has to destroy, clearing the slate so new creation can happen.  In this way, we too serve the Lady.  Have I got that right?"

"Gal catches on quick!" Burnside cackled from across the clearing.

Good heavens!  Is this how lowfolk thought of Fuma?  For that matter, is this how Fuma was thought of by elves in the Long Ago?  Was she originally just a bloodthirsty war goddess?  I made a mental note to never let Rebecca read the Irenaead.  The coolest parts of that epic were also the most violent.

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