Application for Prince Kheldar (aka Silk), the Belgariad / Mallorean

[silkenspy]

((This Silk is post-Mallorean))

One big drafty castle is much the same as another big drafty castle, but Silk had visited Riva often enough that he was fairly sure that this room wasn't in the Citadel. For one thing, Garion didn't have any pens that stood upright with no hand to hold them and tapped themselves on the parchment, as if they were

Comments

[dungbombsrule]

"You'd kill someone based on what race they are?" Voldemort was a professor here once, and Ron had learned to keep a tight grip on his moral outrage. So his tone was more one of incredulity rather than anger.

Still, he knew that absence of the Death-Eaters was too good to stay true.

((David Eddings raised me. Well... not literally.))

[silkenspy]

"No, I'd kill someone based on whether or not they wanted to kill me," Silk replied calmly, eyes busily assessing the young man. "Given that there's been conflict between the Angaraks and the Kingdoms of the West for a few thousand years, the people who want to kill me are normally Angaraks, so knowing what race someone is does tend to be useful when determining the very important question of 'is this person likely to want me or my friends dead.'"

[dungbombsrule]

"Oh. So that's why you asked what race Barney and Carrottop are. Well, if it makes you feel better, they're both Muggle-Born, and Barney is a Muggle-Born dinosaur. So technically I guess Barney is more likely to want to kill you and your friends, though I hear that it's against his personality." He took on his 'instructor' tone, which largely could still use some work.

"And that's why you shouldn't judge people based on race. Because, despite not being a dinosaur, Carrottop probably has killed more people."

[silkenspy]

"Muggle? Dinosaur? I haven't heard of them. Are they among those little kingdoms that the Mallorean Empire's swallowed up over the years?" Odd, because he thought he knew all of them.

He chuckled at the young man's attempt at teacher-voice. He'd had Polgara use that tone on him for years, this redhead had nothing on her.

"Solely on race, no. But it's a good indicator when you look at a few other elements of the circumstances. For instance, when I'm on business in Mallorea I don't expect that every person I meet is going to want to kill me. However, if I'm in, say, Sendaria, I can be certain that any Murgo there is a spy and would gut me if he thought he could get away with it." He shrugged. "Or that used to be the case, anyway. Now that Eriond's their god and they no longer have lunatics on the thrones of Mallorea and Cthol Murgos, official relations have started thawing. They've even started approaching amiable in some cases."

[dungbombsrule]

"Oh, they're not kingdoms, they're people. But dinosaurs are only people if they talk." To be understanding to the animal creatures of Hogwarts, Ron decided that as an instructor he had the authority to stretch the definition of words. "I haven't heard of the Mallorean Empire before, though. And I spent all of last year traveling the world! I'm sure I would have heard of a carnivore empire."

Ron did not take the changes in Hogwarts very well, so after years of frustrations he left Hogwarts behind to 'find himself.' He found pretty much everything except himself, which in retrospect was a good thing because he had an evil puppet. Silk, however, still did not make any sense to Ron.

"I've never heard of those places. Are you sure you're not an alien? We have problems with aliens. And why do all the assassins from your planet sound adorable?" Murgos reminded Ron of some kind of homicidal mango. As his experiences destroyed his healthy sense of skepticism, he actually thought this might be the case

[silkenspy]

If Silk was confusing Ron, Ron was most certainly confusing Silk

[dungbombsrule]

He cringed in embarrassment when Silk picked at his flawed 'Animals are People when...' logic. "All right, mutes count as people. Why don't we say that human mutes are always people, but animal mutes aren't?" He frowned. "But I guess if a dog talked but then got a throat-cold, we couldn't really take away his personhood, now could we?" Hermione might know the answer to this, but she thought that house-elves were people, so he wasn't sure how much he could trust her opinions on such matters.

Ron gave up on the subject altogether, having lost both interest and his bearings. He would leave such thinking to a lawyer, if that profession even existed in the Wizarding World.

He laughed at the image some bloke throwing a hissy fit by chewing on the floor. "He did what?. What did the bloody carpet do to him? And I don't get why chewing the carpet is more satisfying than hollering or throwing birds at people." He didn't understand the appeal of that one either, but he had been too busy fleeing Hermione at the time to ask. "Unless rage made

[silkenspy]

Right, so dinosaurs were animals. Now Silk got it. He thought of something else, and grinned.

"Ah, but whenyou define animals are mutes, are you talking about animals who don't speak human speech? Because I've known some very intelligent animals who could speak in their language, just not human language." Garion's wolf, for one.

He chuckled at Ron's amusement about Taur Urgas. "The carpet didn't do anything to him, which is probably why he chewed on it. He was completely insane - all the Murgo kings were, until the present one, and that's because he's not actually related to Taur Urgas. The insanity of their kings is one of the things that made the Murgos impossible to deal with."