ONE SALT SEA open thread!

I think that one of the challenges that heroes ultimately have to face, if they are to grow and not simply become engines of destruction, fate, divine will or whatever, is this: there are monsters, thinking and unthinking, who have no 'fault'. Whether it's a dragon that's a nonsapient creature whose feeding grounds have been disturbed, or a dangerous solpsist/sociopath who was abused-- the word is too light, in Rayseline's case-- and now only views the world in terms of her fantasies and urges, there will be dangers which have no choices, none at all.

The heroes' challenge, then, is to act with pity and conscience but not to let protection for those who are innocent, for those who can and have made choices for righteousness or at least no major harm, and for those who may yet be redeemed (the hardest edge case, depending on the deeds and the doer). Toby's social circle, including poor Sylvester and Luna, are going to have to make heroic choices.

The possibility of Toby's bloodshifting as a solution here, as with the Selkies and Roane, just means that what you might get out the other end is someone who can be made to be sane, if a large part of it is the really, seriously mixed blood. I'm not sure that sanity is a mercy there, though.