"For all of faerie, potentially," Veducci said. "Have you read your history about the last great human-faerie war in Europe?"
"Not recently," Cortez said.
Veducci looked around at the other lawyers. "Am I the only one here who read up on this?"
Grover raised his hand. "I did."
Veducci smiled at him as if he were his favorite person in the world. "Tell these intelligent people how the last great war started."
"It began as a dispute between the Seelie and Unseelie Courts."
"Exactly," Veducci said. "And then spilled over all the British Isles and part of the continent of Europe."
"Are you saying that if we don't mediate these charges the courts will go to war?" Nelson said.
"There are only two things that Thomas Jefferson and his cabinet made unforgivable offenses for the fey on American soil," Veducci said. "They are never again to allow themselves to be worshipped as deities, and they are never to have a war between the two courts. If either of those things happen they will be kicked out of this, the last country on earth that would have them."
"We know all this," Shelby said.
"But have you considered why Jefferson made those two rules, especially the one about war?"
"Because it would be damaging to our country," Shelby said.
Veducci shook his head. "There is still a crater on the European continent almost as wide as the widest part of the Grand Canyon. That hole is what is left of where the last battle of the war was fought. Think about if that happened in the center of this country, in the middle of our most productive farming country."
They looked at each other. They hadn't thought about it. To Shelby and Cortez it had been a high-profile case. A chance to make new law involving the fey. Everyone had taken the short view, except Veducci, and maybe Grover.
"What do you propose we do?" Shelby asked. "Just let them get away with it?"