“Will bring us a lot of annoyance. I see,” Cassanya nodded. “Which is which?”

Sorry, but that just doesn't make any freakin' sense. If one side is well known for being a group you do not want around due to how they act, and the other side is fine with leaving people alone as long as they stay neutral, it should be pretty obvious which side is which, without them having to ask.

So, they ended up being forced to let the scum leave to keep him from offing hostages. Unfortunate, but understandable, though now they've got an unknown time limit to work with, as you can bet he's going to go straight for reinforcements, to 'get back' at those that struck such fear in him and exposed his cowardice.

As if Tee didn't have enough to deal with. Woodward should be able to lead the others to her at least, once he recovers and they get done getting drunk anyway, so that's something. And to the surprise of absolutely no-one, the people Teirnach sent out to 'convince' mages to side with The First aren't the kind who take 'no' for an answer, despite his naievity to the contrary.

It's not a case of "Are the nice guys with Tiernach or Kaja" it's a "Who's under what colour?" :)

If America had (another) civil war and it ended up as west coast vs east as red vs blue, it'd be tough to call which was which without being told ^^

Hmm, I might be confusing what I, as a reader know, with what they, as characters know, but don't they know by now that Teirnach is anything but on the side of good? Given that, if one side(and the associated 'color') is clearly acting in an evil way, shaking down villages and worse, it would seem pretty clear that that's Teirnach's side, rather than that of his brother.

Yeah, they're not really running on much information. Feral, Cassanya et al don't really have much information about the politics behind the war (and civil war), they're reacting to things that have happened and some sketchy information from Fellirion. The best person to judge would be Aleana, who isn't present, and who doesn't really think either of her brothers is capable of some of the things that are going on anyway. Seemed better to just have them ask, rather than fall foul of an error in judgement :)