I quickly found out… that wasn’t likely to happen. Turns out this class was mandatory for all non-elves and was less about the law and more propaganda about how elves were superior in every way and ruled over everyone, creating peace and prosperity.
I left feeling sick.
“Rough, isn’t it?” The voice pulled me from my dour thoughts as I turned down the hall.
Vyns leaned casually against a wall and smiled when I spotted him.
“Rough doesn’t begin to describe it,” I said, frustrated. “I’d hoped I could learn about the law, so I could use it to help people, but…”
“Yeah, the elves don’t want anyone else to know the law. That way they can do whatever they like. You need to be a noble to learn anything more than this drivel,” he said pushing off from the wall.
“And you’re noble?” I asked. He’d said something yesterday about his family being elevated because of his association with Saldrea.
Vyns scoffed. “Far from it.” He fell in step beside me as I made my way toward the lesser residence for lunch.
Only then did I recall what Myel had told me. “Right, dwarves, sylphim, undines, and dragons are noble, right?”
He nodded. “Though dragons are technically outside of the caste system. Sort of their own entity, but still in service to the elves.”
“What does that mean?”
“Essentially, treat them with respect, but they don’t use the “Di” caste identifier in their names. That’s pretty much it.”
“Oh… okay… so… when you said your family was elevated somehow?”
“Theirstatusimproved and they’reroughly on par with a noble, but their caste is still gentil, like you. Caste is caste, you can’t escape that unless a royal gives you special dispensation and under the queen regent, that’s never happened.”
“Right, so… nymphs and seraphim are gentil, who else?”
I still didn’t trust him, but I found it extremely easy to talk to Vyns. He was just so… nice and friendly and informative. He felt like an old friend. I couldn’t say exactly why I felt so comfortable around him.
God, I hoped this wasn’t a trick. My trust in men might never recover if it was.
“The gentil caste consists of nymphs, dryads, seraphim, and concubi.” The last word came out with distaste.
That gave me an opening to ask, “Don’t like concubi? And why are they called that, not incubi and succubi?” I’d never heard the term concubi in my world.
“They’redemons, foul beings in general,” he said as if the word itself tasted sour. “They were born to darkness and death in the lower realm.”
So… just a general angel-demon dislike, it seemed.
“And concubi is the in-between term, it meansto lay beside, whereas incubus meansto lay on top of, and succubusto lay beneath. Hence the termconcubine, which does exist in your realm?”
Ah, yes, right.
How very sexist. Though, the usage of concubi was actually kind of neutral and not sexist. So… yeah.
Since I was getting a lesson in castes from Vyns anyway, I asked about the lower castes.
“The humble caste consists of pixies, tritons, salmaeri, trolls, and harbingers.”
I didn’t want to ask about all the words I hadn’t understood. That was for later.
“The caste below that doesn’t have a name, it’s just the lowest casts, consisting of hobgoblins, beastfolk, and ogres.”
I wondered if my roomkeeper, Zora, was a hobgoblin or an ogre. I was fairly certain she wasn’t a shifter or beastfolk, like Myel. Were ogres green like Shrek, if so, perhaps that’s what she was?
Again, questions for later.
