I finally managed to read it all; the story gets progressively more interesting. A bit of soft, social sci-fi is a welcome change of pace nowadays, but a few details just rubbed me the wrong way.

First, Eol turning out to be a callous asshole was a surprise; for the entire first part of the story, he seemed to be the reasonable one. For that matter, kudos to Wergon to figuring out the real meaning behind the replies from Erlanter, but as the reader I would have appreciated some prior hints.

Second, Nereth carrying sensitive military courier... with an open cart... on the tram?! I don't care how advanced and peaceful their society is (and we know it's not perfect, from the way leaders hide things from the general populace), that's just incongruous. And then the contents of that courier ends up transported back individually as hand luggage... also on the tram. Somehow.

Third, I understand that these are aliens, who simply don't think like humans, but the whole incident at the end would have been averted simply by not allowing lethal weapons at the meeting. Having troops on both sides making sure nobody went in with hidden intentions was only natural; but the point should have been to make sure the meeting itself could not be anything but peaceful. Mind you, fisticuffs are known to erupt in Asian parliaments in the real world. But everybody laugh them off in the end, precisely because they never escalate. Imagine someone sneaking in a knife and killing their fellow parliamentarians.

On the plus side, I love the anti-war message. You obviously understand the nature of violence; I plan to write an article about it myself. Your characters are three-dimensional, if sometimes weird and not always likeable, and the conclusion is satisfying. More stories in the same setting would not be unwelcome; I'd like to learn more about the neighbors of Morellis. Good work!

Thanks very much for the advice! I'll try to address each one:

1) Yeah, you're right. I rushed that part, and I should probably go back and add in more bits with Finarth. I was having trouble with coming up with interesting things for him to do.

2) While I understand what you're saying with the first part, I'm not sure to what you're referring with the "transported back individually as hand luggage." Could you elaborate on that?

3) What I should flesh out here is that it's a prisoner's dilemma -- that's a detail I forgot to include. Both sides are terrified that the other will bring weapons; while it would be best for neither to do so, they end up both doing so, "just in case."

Glad you liked it, though!

On point two, I don't want to give spoilers. I'll re-read that part and get back to you. On point three, the dilemma could have been trivially avoided by both sides agreeing to a scan prior to entering the room. It's simply too implausible that they didn't. Come to think of it, both sides carried their weapons out in the open -- they could have even more easily agreed to leave them outside. It would make some sense if they were... dunno, some kind of medieval samurai? But they're not. And I don't know how you could fix it.

Well, the soldiers do have a reason to carry at least their staves out: they're primarily ceremonial in nature. What I think I need to explain in the story is that both sides are afraid of an assassination attempt, and are much more concerned about concealed weapons than revealed ones. Thus, both sides brought along a defense force, and aren't comfortable with letting their guard down, at all. I skipped over Erlanter's anger somewhat, mainly because -- again -- I was running out of things to say. I was trying to get across the idea that things are on the brink of war already, and neither side is really willing to de-escalate.