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"If you please, sir," Earendil spoke up, addressing Khenan, since he seemed to be more or less in charge, "I think some of us would like to go back to the ship, but others of us would like to look around."

Khenan nodded. "Then those who would like to return to the ship, I will lead," he said. "And I will help you with your supplies."

"I will escort those who wish to explore," Favian spoke up, the other senator with brown skin and light brown hair.

"We're going to head back to the ship with Mother and Father," Leyenda told Earendil. "As nice as it would be to explore, we want to get back to Amalirahc."

Celeb glanced at Haldia. "What do you want to do?"

Haldia looked around. "I would like to look around," she admitted.

Celeb nodded. "I'll stay with you then," he told her.

As the others headed off, Favian turned and took his sword from the pillar it was hanging on, and sheathed it at his side. Then he smiled softly at everyone.

"So what would you like to see?" he asked them. "Is there anything in particular?"

Since of course they hadn't seen much on their way in - just a few back alleys, really.

"Maybe we could just wander for a while, and see the people," Earendil suggested. "To be honest, most of us have never seen such a variety of people ... and even fewer half-elves."

Somehow the idea seemed to amuse the senator, and the corners of his lips turned up in a smile.

"While I have to admit that we still have a large number of full-blooded elves," he said, leading them away from the dome, "that are not a majority. Humans are an even smaller minority. About half of our population is of a mixture of some sort, and with each passing year that percentage increases."

He paused, turning to the others. "And by the way, if you have questions, feel free to ask," he told them sincerely. "Our love is for peace, and as long as that is not threatened we are quite an open people."

Earendil smiled. "Thank you, I'm sure we will," he replied politely.

Earendil chuckled. "Or you could tell him all about it yourself, and it could be just secondhand," he teased her. "Or who knows? Maybe on our way home from Amon Darthir, rather than heading straight back, we could stop here. I would have my mapping tools then. Or we could make a totally separate visit, I mean, we're going to have to bring Aethos back to Amon Darthir sometime."

He doubted that the sola would stay in the Four Lands, after all.

"And if we come again, Shiro can come with us," he added.

"Lin," Haldia spoke up, "can you ask him about that fighter from the ranch? The one that looks like him?"

Favian looked at Haldia over his shoulder, giving her the same strange look that the first dark elf had given Miyuki when she'd spoken in the Ancient Tongue.

"Someone who looks like me?" he questioned.

Favian blinked at Lin, and then looked at the group as if seeing them all for the first time.

"Explore, no," he said slowly. "But ... there ... was one couple who went missing ... it was nearly a thousand years ago, but everyone knows of them. They were out fishing - a foolish idea, considering that she was with child - and a storm came up. They were never heard from again. It was assumed that they were drowned at sea."

He tilted his head slightly. "And you say that there is a woman who looks like me, and who knows nothing of her origins?" he asked.

"Well now, that is interesting," Favian mused, grinning to himself. "Now, you tell me nothing is known about her father, but what of her mother? Yes, she died in childbirth, but what race was she? That much at least must be known."

He was sure he knew, but he wanted to be absolutely certain before he stirred things up.

Favian clapped his hands together, clearly happy with that answer.

"Then she is surely the daughter of Leontis and Elysia!" he exclaimed. "This is excellent news, most excellent. Luk will be happy to hear about this, happy indeed."

Earendil's brow furrowed. "Luk?" he asked. "The senator?"

"Yes, I know," Favian chuckled, his hand fiddling with the tassel on the pommel of his sword. "You would expect that if someone would be happy, it would be someone who looks as I do. I at least look like her, yes? But no. She and Luk share the same mother, though they have different fathers. She would be his half-sister."

Glancing down at them, he explained.

"Elysia was a full-blooded elf, a Light Elf, as they are commonly called. Her first marriage was to a man named Falco, a man who was just as human as she was elvish. Luk was their only child, and he looks like both of his parents: his father, like his mother, had golden hair, though he did inherit his father's human ears, unlike me - though he did inherit the immortality of the elves, which not all half-bloods do," he added as if this were a significant fact.

He went on. "Falco being human, and thus mortal, he grew old and died while Elysia remained as young and as beautiful as ever. Luk was a grown man by the time this happened, and his mother couldn't take solace in him the way she might have if he had still been a child. He simply did not need looking after. For a few decades, he did what he could, but it wasn't enough, until at last she met Leontis, a man of both human and Earth-elven heritage."

"Earth-elven?" Earendil questioned.

Favian grinned and pointed at himself. "Once, the separation of the races was complete here, and we had villages of Dark Elves, Light Elves, Earth Elves, White Elves, Water Elves ... and on the other side of the continent, the humans. But we have all come together, and now look at us." He chuckled softly.