The world, in its ey, has always existed. Terra nullius is a lie- if it was livable, someone lived there. And for the northernmost edge of the ti, which went nearly to the equator, that 'someone' had, historically, been the Green Orcs.

  The Green Orcs were, themselves, split into twh camps: the settled Green Orcs, who lived in cities and farming vilges in a long, thin river valley that clearly marked the borders of the Mesa Verde, and the nomadic Green Orcs, who lived on the arid Mesa Verde itself, herding sheep across the grassnds and fighting off encroag cowboys with bows from horseback.

  Mount Fate itself was just oher side of the river valley from the Mesa Verde, and for as long as there had been a town built around its base, there had always been Green Or it... despite itent efforts by the Hikaano to remove them. Those efforts, bloody and atrocious as they may be, had never really worked, and today, as we pulled into the town named after the mountai door, it was to get a te breakfast at a little local restaurant run by a family of Green Orcs.

  "What would you reend to someone who's feeling adventurous?" I asked.

  "A gss of milk," the waitress, a young orcish woman named Estefania, said with a toothy smirk. "We don't get many Adventurers in here, mostly just locals, and around here, we really like our peppers."

  Like most Green Orcs around here, her skin was a bright, leafy green, although I'd been told that orcish skin tone spahe same sort e as humans did, and there were Green Orcs whose skin was more of a dark greenish-brown; mostly out on the Mesa Verde, but people moved around. She also had the characteristic strong jaw, a slight ue, and unusually long and pointed es that were visible when she spoke.

  Overall, while orcs couldn't pass themselves as human as easily as elves could- for us, all it took was a hairstyle or hat that covered our ears- they still looked human enough that marriages with other humanoids happened all the time.

  "Elves don't even notice that kind of heat," I said with a shrug. "So don't worry."

  "Yeah, yeah, you're tough as nails, I get it. Listen-"

  "No, he's serious," Talia said. "Elves are immuo capsai, the chemical that makes peppers taste like burning. Nobody really knows why, we just... are. Weirdest thing. Makes for a party trick, though- if you've got some ridiculously hot pepper lying around, one of us eat it without feeling a thing."

  "I'm, uh. I'm used to spicy foods," Emily added. "My mom made the staff learn a bunch of traditional erian recipes when she married Dad, and would pin any time it wasn't hot enough."

  "...Fuck you guys, I don't have to prove anything to you," Faith said, as we all turo look at her. "I'll take you up on that gss of milk."

  "Right, well, I'd say a pan of beef enchidas should be a good introdu to Verde food for you all," Estefania said. "That sound good?"

  "No idea what those are, but it's hard to fuck up beef, and I trust your judgement," I said, nodding.

  "I've had them before, they're really good," Emily said.

  "Alright, that's a pan of beef enchidas for the whole table," Estefania said. "Does anyone want something else?"

  "Sounds good to me," Talia said.

  "Do you have anything that isn't spicy?" Faith asked.

  "We'll get you something that won't burn your tongue off," Estefania said, before patronizingly patting Faith on the head. "Be right back with that."

  She bustled off towards the kit, leaving us alo the table, and also fairly alone in the restaurant- at this time of day, hardly anyone was in here.

  "So," Talia said. "Do you speak any Orcish?"

  "I learned a little Verde, but not a huge amount," I admitted. "We just don't get that many or Redwater, y'know? Hard to learn a nguage when all you've got is books."

  "Why were you learning Orcish?" Faith asked.

  "Well, I knew I was gonna wanna e north to look for unis, because they have been sighted out on the Mesa Verde," I said. "And I figured that, if I was gonna spend a lot of time out on the Mesa Verde, then I'd want to be able to talk to the people who live there, so..." I shrugged. "Also, I do o remind you both that there's no suguage as Orcish. There's Verde and there's Grigian, and while the two nguages are mutually intelligible to native speakers, a novice is gonna wanna learn them separately."

  "Pretty much exactly that," Estefania said, returning from the kit with a bck wooden serving ptter held above her head. "So, Chico Rojo, o se lma usted?"

  "Uhhhh..." I blinked a few times- I did remember that "o se lma" was something like a greeting- it wasn't quite "hello, how are you?" though- and that "usted" was the polite way of saying "you", but... I was just pletely bnking, even though I should know what that all meant.

  "Oh, um," Emily said, after a few moments. "You, uh... You've got a little bit of brain damage."

  "Oh," I said. "So I'm not a fetful dumbass for pletely fetting everything I've learned about Verde."

  "Solo un poco," Estefania said, setting the ptter down oable. In the ter was a big regur pan filled with what looked like an indistinct mess of saud starch, but which turned out to be several individual rolls of ftbread- tortils, I think- ed around a meaty filling, which were just a little gealed together thanks to the thick yer of sauce. "So, why've you got brain damage?"

  "I died yesterday," I said, shrugging. "Stabbed through the heart. Luckily, I had a Healer right there-" I gestured at Emily, who was seated directly to my right. "-so she was able t me back, but... Well, I guess there's still sequences."

  "Yeah..." Emily said. "By this point, everything from the neck down is healed, except for the scar- I didn't know if you wao keep it or not- but you, um... You've basically got a minor cussiht now, and you'll want to take it easy until that clears up."

  "So, questioefania said. "Is it true that elves love old dies?"

  "That's..." I trailed off, a fork already in my hand. "...Look. It's more plicated than that."

  She burst out ughing.

  "It's more accurate to say that everyone else hates old women, and elves happen to not hate them," I tinued. "I mean, we all know it's bullshit that Hikaano society teaches its girls that they're only valuable when they're beautiful, but it's also bullshit that Hikaano society teaches girls that they're only beautiful when they're young. And if elves only let themselves love humans who were young, they'd only get a decade or two with their human lovers, instead of the four to eight decades that human will be alive for."

  "...Ah," Estefania said, more quietly.

  "Also," I tinued, "Emily, your mom is in her fifties, right? And you certainly wouldn't call her ugly, would you? I know I wouldn't. Duchess Melody Redwater is one of the most beautiful women I've ever met."

  "I'm... sure she'd be fttered," Emily said nervously, her cheeks heating up.

  "I know, I've told her that myself," I said. "Anyhow! Point is, old womeill geous, and High Elves are just the only ones with the stoo admit it."

  "Thank you for defending my honor, Sir Iro," Duchess Melody Redwater said from the entrao the restaurant. "However, I have it from here. May we join you?"

  "How the hell did you get here so fast?" Talia asked, turning tard Melody. "I thought you hated trains." I watched, from the er of my eye, as Estefania rapidly made herself scarot wanting anything to do with aristocrat family drama.

  "Peregrine here is an aplished Wizard," Melody said, gesturing to her elven butler, who I'd met a few times before, but... Now that I really looked at him, I could, in fact, see the mystical signs of a man who was a very good Wizard but didn't want to be known as a good Wizard. It also expined how he got around so fast- clearly, he knew how to teleport. "He has even tutored my eldest son in the Are arts."

  "Huh," I said. "Well, have a seat, we were just about to eat an early lunch. Do you like beef enchidas?"

  "Sir Iro, you are eoo kind to an old woman," Melody said, grabbing the wooden spatu and a pte, and serving herself a single enchida- with a bit of extra sauce, scraped off the bottom and sides of the pan. She theed herself between myself and Emily, and began to eat.

  "Peregrine?" I asked, looking up at the butler politely standing behind his liege.

  "I've already eaten, but thank you for the offer," he said politely.

  "Fair enough," I said, nodding. "Oh, if it's not too much bother, Lady Emily's asked me to teach her the basics of Wizardry before the semester starts, and I'd appreciate it if you could help with that, and ensure I don't teach her any bad habits."

  Peregrine nodded. "I will o sult my schedule for the wo months, but I believe time be made for that, if Lady Emily desires my help."

  "Oh, I mean... You don't have to, Pip," Emily said, sheepishly. "I don't want you to have to keep telep all the way out here all the time. That's a lot of magicka, isn't it?"

  "There is nothing within my duty as the Butler and Court Wizard of House Redwater that I sider a waste of my time and magicka," Peregrine said firmly.

  Now, I may not be an aristocrat, but my parents definitely were, and I knew a few things about readiween the lines: Emily had politely told him no, and he was insisting otherwise. Now, how do I navigate this in a way that lets Emily maintain some autonomy without making me look like a jackass for raising the subje the first pce?

  For what would likely not be the first time, I wondered if this would be any easier if I didn't have fog at the edges of my mind. I didn't feel that different, but... well, my brain was promised, and I couldn't really trust what I was feeling, could I?

  "While I'll hear no insult to your skill, Peregrihe simple fact of the matter is that Mount Fate is one of the greatest Uies in the world," Melody interjected. "Your dedication is praiseworthy and well-noted, but in this circumstance, I'm afraid we'll have to leave Emily in the hands of the Uy."

  Ah, perfect, someohout brain damage to navigate the plex social situation I actally created.

  "...As you wish," Peregrine said quietly.

  "If there are any study materials you reend, however, I'm sure a few day's dey to gh the mail should be tolerable," I added, because I did want this guy to like me, and making him feel like I respected and valued his experiend opinion seemed like a reasonable way to do that.

  "I will prepare what I ," Peregrine said.

  "Damn, these are really good, even without the peppers ing through," Talia said, swallowing her first big bite of enchida. Faith, meanwhile, was chowing down on what looked to be a burrito, and which was, to judge from the ck of blushing, panting, and cursing, wholly devoid of peppers.

  The rest of us took a break from talking to eat, and I agreed with Talia's assessment- these were actually really good.

  "Yeah," Emily said, after finishing her own first bite. "Holy, Faith, you have to try this, it's really good."

  "You look at me and tell me I look like I handle spicy food," Faith said ftly.

  "It's not that spicy," Emily said, carving off a big bite of enchida with the side of her fork, before spearing it and it to Faith.

  "Listen," I said. "I try to fight against racism where I , even within my ow. I am not always successful, and if I ever say or do something that implies I do not sider a certaihnic group to be fully valuable people who deserve respect, I want to be corrected on that, and will do my best to accept that corre with a minimum of fuss and defensiveness."

  "Uh," Faith began.

  "That being said," I tinued, looking at the piece of enchida at the end of Emily's fork, "I tell you that there is no lie in this world that will hurt you more than a bck person saying 'It's not that spicy.'"

  Duchess Melody coughed, c a ugh, and Emily ged a little.

  "Yeah, yeah, you're all so goddamn tough," Faith said, before snatg the fork from Emily aing the morsel of enchida with swiftness. "There. I ate it. No big d-" She coughed, and her face started turning red, from her forehead to her throat. "Oh. Oh that was a mistake. Oh no. Oh no, that's-"

  "I warned you," I said, shaking my head, as Faith began to guzzle milk.

  Oh well. She'd live.

  AnnouAs always, if you like Iro and wao keep making it, the best way to do that is to leave a ent, here or on my discord server.