#faeries can't lie

[emjenenla]

Something horrifying I just realized about my favorite Cruel Prince quote

I mentioned a while ago that this was my favorite Cardan quote:

“There you are,“ Cardan says as I take my place beside him. "How has the night been going for you? Mine has been full of dull conversation about how my head is going to find itself on a spike.” (American Hardcover pp. 357)

I was just scrolling through the various quotes I’ve posted here and I realized something truly horrifying about it:

Cardan is faerie. He can’t lie, which means that he’s not just being dramatic here. While Jude was off subduing Madoc someone threatened Cardan by telling him his head was going to end up on a spike. That’s terrifying.

Of course, there’s the possibility that Cardan is exaggerating, but his conversation with the guards at the beginning of part two suggests that while he can say things out of context so they seem to mean something else, everything he says has to be literally true (pp. 255-256). In other words, someone (probably, Balekin, let’s be honest) would have had to use that exact threat on him in the time he specifies for him to actually be able to actually say that to Jude.

The other thing that strikes me about this is how calm he is about the whole thing. Jude has just taken care of Madoc and she’s freaking out, but Cardan is completely calm (pp. 357). He’s just like, “Oh, well I was just threatened by someone and told that if I didn’t do what they wanted they’d not only kill me but defile my corpse, but everything’s A-Okay. What about you?” I think that says a lot about Cardan’s coping mechanisms. He seemed to deal with things by either ignoring them and hoping they’ll go away (like he tries to do with his feelings for Jude) or making them into a joke and acting like they don’t bother him.

Jude realizes towards the end of the book that if she and Cardan ever fought she would win (pp. 304-305). Cardan doesn’t have any skill in physical fighting so his only defenses are to make friends and act unaffected. He does this when he befriends Dain’s spies while being held prisoner (pp. 298-300), and does it again when Jude betrays him at the end of the book (pp. 364-365). 

Cardan knows that he can’t defend himself against Balekin if Jude’s plan goes wrong so he tries to cope with the situation by laughing at it. If he can turn it into a joke then its not as scary and everything will have to work out. However, that doesn’t mean that underneath the smile he’s not as worked up as Jude is.

[emjenenla]

You know a changeling (a faerie child which was exchanged for the human parents’ real child) who was raised to think of themselves as human would still be unable to lie but they would never know why. They would spend their whole life wondering why everyone else can say things that aren’t true when they are quite literally incapable of doing the same. They would try over and over again to lie only to have the words stick in their throat unable to pass their lips. They would probably assume that everyone had trouble lying too but managed to overcome it which would lead to wondering why they cannot do the same. Eventually, just like all faeries, they would learn to tell truths that are technically true but can be interpreted to mean something false. However, they would always wonder why they can’t just say something that’s not true. They would wonder, “Why when I’m sneaking out to go to party my parents wouldn’t like can I say, ‘I’m going to Stacy’s’ but not ‘I’m going to Stacy’s to have a movie night’? What’s the difference?” They’d wonder all their life but because they’d never meet another faerie or realize what they are they’d never know.