"That's another concern, aye," she said, darkly. "Part of why I don't personally use 'em anymore, but they ain't... intelligent same way people is. It's like this-"

She drew a circle. "This is 'ome. The world, the Material plane. Rocks, water, life, magic, the 'ole sausage roll- an' these-" she drew several much smaller circles, on orbits around it. "These is the planes. Fire, Ice, Day, Night- a few others, but those is't big ones. It's like... from't outside, it's just sort of- flat. But inside, it's big- bloody near infinite. Just a great big expanse of nothin' but magic. When you make an elemental, you bind up a little bit'f that plane, an' bring it to't world. Let it go, and it just goes back. They think, they can even speak, really, but the way their minds work is just- different. Fire elementals is mostly 'appy if you give 'em somethin' t'burn, earth elementals don't do much unless you stick a pickaxe in 'em. But you ain't wrong. Differently intelligent is still intelligent, an' just because everyone else is doin' it don't mean spit. I've found a few alternatives as work in't small scale, at least."