Talk:The Silent Audience—A Historical Note/@comment-4849011-20160814002759

As usual I enjoyed the illustrations, the interweaving of other stories (I recognize the Lontaqas and the Gerdin), and the description & other touches ("pale as gruel", haughty elves, skittish cat people, the uncanny creatures, etc.). This was a good tale and it brought to mind a lot of things.
 * There's a publisher called Tuttle that has a variety of books with topics from around the world, such as samurai weapons, Korean language, and Filipino throwing weapons. Was the character in this story an alternate universe version of the founder of this publishing house?
 * In a world with humans and fantasy creatures, it's interesting to think about nonhuman indigenous peoples.
 * The comment about demons not going back on their bargains reminded me of a story from one of Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books. I won't give the whole thing away or spoil the ending, but it involved a pair of sisters who met a gypsy girl at the traveling carnival.  She had a beautiful drum, and she told the girls that they would have it if they misbehaved.  Each day the girls would misbehave and tell the girl about it, but she would just laugh and tell them they had to be worse than that.  On the last day they visited her one final time and expected to get the drum, but the gypsy told them, "I'm sorry, I thought you understood that this was just a game we were playing. I never intended to give you the drum."  In the notes section Schwartz noted that what the carnival girl did was considered even worse than what a demon would do.
 * I recognize the prohibition on mentioning names from stories of fairies and Furies, so that immediately brings myths and legends to mind.
 * When the Appalachians and Cherokee were mentioned I jokingly thought, "It's always the Appalachians and Cherokee," because a lot of people reference them when telling folktales. I'm not complaining by any means, just commenting on you channeling that.
 * The cross and steeple down is a bad omen, and it made me think of a legend involving a troll. I can share it if you're interested.