IV. Who Comes and Why

The Convergence Grove is used for three categories of purpose, by Fey for whom no other venue would suffice.

The Cross-Crown Meeting

When representatives of different Crowns, or of Revels whose mutual hostility makes any other meeting ground untenable, need to negotiate, they come to the Grove. Not because they trust each other, but because the Grove’s neutrality is the only guarantee that neither Fey party will break the peace simply because breaking it would be advantageous. The Grove makes Fey treachery against other Fey disadvantageous in ways that are difficult to calculate in advance and impossible to fully predict, which is a stronger deterrent than any treaty. Mortals sometimes attend these meetings as witnesses, advisors, or parties to the negotiation itself. The Grove’s pact does not extend to them. Their safety during a Cross-Crown Meeting depends entirely on the goodwill of the Fey present, the terms of whatever arrangement brought them there, and their own judgment.

The Parley

When individual Fey of different affiliations need to speak without the weight of their Crown allegiance, their Seasonal Court’s politics, or their Revel’s obligations determining every word, the Grove provides the space. Not anonymity: the Grove knows who everyone is, always. But a specific kind of permission to speak as an individual rather than as a representative. Conversations that begin in the Grove often accomplish things that formal negotiations between Crowns or Courts cannot, because the Grove’s atmosphere tends to dissolve the specific kind of performance that Fey conduct for the benefit of their affiliations and leave something closer to genuine communication.

The Remembering

The oldest function of the Grove, predating the Crowns themselves. Fey come to the Grove to remember things they have forgotten, because the Grove has not forgotten anything. This is not a research process. You cannot ask the Grove a question and receive an answer. You come to the Grove and sit with what you need to know, and sometimes the Grove’s backward-playing birds happen to sing a melody you recognize, and sometimes the light through the canopy falls in a pattern that means something to you, and sometimes you leave knowing what you needed to know without being able to say exactly when you learned it.

This function is the least understood and the most frequently used. Every significant Crown and Seasonal Court has at least one individual whose role is to make periodic visits to the Grove and bring back whatever understanding they can. These individuals are not oracles. They are, in the Fey understanding, witnesses: those who attend to what the Grove is expressing and attempt to translate it into something their Crown or Court can use.