Abused kid goes on adventure in Faerie, wants to stay. Should she be allowed to?

If by “look into her problems” you mean suggest to certain people I know that her parents could use some “motivation” to change their behavior, then yes. I’ve got Rhymer Enterprises in my speed dial, and I’ll pay for the flaming monkeys.

Otherwise, Emma is staying in Pangea to be adopted.

That’s why I asked about rishartha – if there is a culturally accepted way she can have sex, that’s going a long way towards making the option workable.

But if people of this world regard interspecies coupling as a non-starter, it would be a different outcome.

Given her heroic actions in the recent past, I think it’s reasonable to allow her choice to be given great weight. My only question is whether the Prophet can arrange for some convincing evidence of the crimes committed against Emma to be conveyed back to Earth, so that the perpetrators don’t get the chance to find another victim.

Rhymer Enterprises doesn’t need evidence. Nor do they leave any.

I’d leave it up to Emma, but I’d also choose to stay in Pangaea as well, as a secondary guardian in case anything goes poorly with Aredhel. I don’t think I could leave a child, let alone the only person of her species, on the planet with clear conscious.

If someone is happier where she is, and faces distaste in her ‘proper’ place then she should stay. She should stay anyway if we allow people to go by their own decisions. Future problems will be dealt with as they arise.
A slightly more nuanced view would examine whether we should ‘allow’ the damaged facing misery in real life to escape into a land of magic, faerie and unicorns by way of the Great Druggie Road. I would see no reason to change my answer.

Ten year olds are not typically permitted to make long-term life decisions on their own.

I would submit that the decision of a ten-year-old to avoid going back for more to severe familial abuse — in the old days by scarpering — is superior to the decisions of courts who would return her there.

It depends. On the one hand, the magical land is clearly better than Emma’s own home, but . . . it’s not where she belongs. The point made above about how almost all children’s fantasy books end with the protagonists returning to reality is interesting; it’s all about leaving childhood behind and growing up, yet still holding onto the benefits. The best case scenario would be for the Prophet to arrange for Emma to be placed into a loving adoptive family back on Earth. There’s just so many ways letting her stay behind and sealing the barrier could go wrong.
With that said, I’d totally beg to stay. So I guess I’m just a hypocrite. :smiley:

Assuming arguendo that this is true, it’s not the choice we have. It’s my opinion that the Prophet is seeking, not the opinion of a court. There’s very little question that the right answer NOW, for her as a child, is to remain. But dragons live forever, not so little girls. She will grow up and become an adult. Can I recommend that she be exiled to world in which she is the only human?

Not sure. The knowledge that she could find a romantic partner and live a fulfilling life in this world is key to this recommendation.

Ten year-olds are not typically responsible for saving two worlds.

I think you’re harping on this too much - it’s not like she’s going to live on the Planet of the Slug Monsters. She’ll be surrounded by humanoids, which is IMO enough.

I think you’re placing way too much emphasis on this than is necessary. Lots of people live happy lives without romance or partners. And as a (implicit) multiple-rape survivor, she may not want romance - ever.

OP-meddling question from me (per the usual): Is it possible for Aredhel to return to Earth with Emma, instead? Perhaps with a heap of gold and a spell of you-don’t-need-to-see-my-papers (I think Mordenkainen wrote that one…or maybe that was Vecna’s Glamour of No Stinkin Badges)? Either with the object of somehow taking the place of Emma’s scum mother, or just resettling in some out of the way country under new identities where no one’d ever bother looking for them. That way, y’know, Emma could get a fresh start in life, but still be able to go to a Mall or something, occasionally.

Bah. Idle speculation on my part, sure to be slapped down. 'Might as well let her stay in Pangaea. 'Worse things than that—and better than keeping quiet or having everyone think she’s crazy for seventy years.

That’s certainly true.

If she were a piano prodigy, you could have replied by saying, “Ten year olds typically cannot play Stravinsky’s Petrushka Transcription flawlessly.” And I would have agreed with that, too.

But I don’t agree that either piano playing or world-saving necessarily proves an ability to understand and weigh the future implications of the decision in front of her now.

Lots of people – compared to the number of people in the world? No – I’d say only a tiny fraction of people lead happy lives without romance or partners.

And while her past horror with rape certainly “may,” turn her off romance and/or sex forever, again it’s something that happens to a small minority of rape survivors. (Certainly many rape survivors have issues in the area, but ‘forever’ avoiding romance and/or sex is not a common outcome.)

One of these things is not like the other - a month-long fantasy-type quest in another world says much, much more to me about someone’s maturity than their ability to do scales for hours at age 5.

Once again, though, I’m interjecting my own gloss into Skald’s OP narrative - I’m assuming the quest included monsters braved, riddles guessed, fears conquered, resolve tested etc, etc. The usual Grand Tour of Fantasyland. If it was just “Dibble, get Emma to stand on the X outside the Godshome at the double eclipse. I’ll fly you both in and out. Meanwhile, kick back and enjoy the miruvor”, that’s different and I’d agree with you. But a LOTR-style quest? Naah, that’s not just tinkling the ivories.

I’d say the vast majority of the world, or at least a majority of the female half, lead lives without romance or loving partners, yes.
Sex, of course, comes to them whether they want it or no. Most of the world is more rural India than Manhattan. Romance isn’t really in the cards.

I emphasised the “multiple” there, and at a very formative age. She’s not an average rape survivor (I fervently hope.) I’m not saying she may not want romance at some stage, but to make it a priority over her happiness in other areas, like a loving home? For some future possibility? Against her express wishes?

Trade Emma to Aredhel for a unicorn to take home. I was going to let Emma stay anyway and now – hey! – free unicorn!

I abstain, it’s not my decision to make. I would secretly think she’s making the right choice to stay, but I would not even consider making the choice for her.

True enough, but while RhE’s no-toleration-of-rapists-and-child-molesters policy would result in the boyfriends’ getting fed to alligators (it would never occur to any RhE operative to spare them), the no-harming-female-noncombatants policy would mean the mother could escape harm simply by not picking up a weapon.

Unicorn – Western-style unicorns, anyway–are avatars of Christ. I doubt Pallas created or imported any when engineering Pangaea. :wink:

The Prophet isn’t asking you to make the decision, though; she’s asking your advice, based on the fact that you have greater knowledge of your city’s social services and a more intimate knowledge of human nature than she can aspire too.