“In my… news… from the O’Neal, he also communicated his intention to travel to Barwhon and attempt to restore relations with the Tchpth,” she offered. Leaving out the chronology also preserved necessary fictions about the speed of communications and related matters for discretion.

“Interesting news,” he said, ears twitching in surprise. “Still, the nature of the breach is of a delicate kind, possibly unmendable.”

The Indowy deciding humanity was fundamentally insane qualified as unmendable if anything did. Her only hope lay in introducing doubt in that conclusion.

“Perhaps. You are aware that certain intriguers among my race massively altered their brain chemistry.” There. Frame the “insanity” as artificially induced by primitive medical practices.

“The Indowy Clans, as all civilized races, recognize consumption of flesh as a dangerously primitive trait.” Roolnai shuddered at the word “flesh.” “There are natural concerns about such a species from the very beginning.”

“Of course. But the ‘beginning,’ as you say, goes back far beyond the present eye-blink. Your race has a great deal of experience of mine, and of your clans engaging with ours.”

Again the clan head’s ears twitched, surprised. “I suppose it is to be expected that you would be better informed than other humans. Your observation is true. It is also true that human clan structure has weakened, particularly in the survivors of the great slaughter, and many clans have judged that change not to be for the better. Including my own. Advancing medical care an infant’s step is all very well, but if the fundamental cause lies elsewhere…”

“Recent events, deplorable though they have been, should properly mitigate one of the causes for concern. However horrific the events, the O’Neal’s judgment of the value to our very small clan of a particular member has in some measure been vindicated. Primitive skills, but a link in the chain not only to Clan O’Neal survival but to Path value that even the Tchpth acknowledged.”