"I never trusted outsiders much," Old Nan said as everyone in the great hall turned to listen to her story. "I thought that Lady Nyrielle abandoned those of us who lived in the outlying villages. I never once thought of 'returning' to the Vale of Mists, even when the Black Merchant visited with his offers of safety and security behind the Vale's curtain walls."
In hindsight, she'd been wrong to hold out for as long as she had. If she'd accepted Marcel's offer more than a decade ago, she might not have lost her son, Lako, to Owain Lothian's savagery, and that was a regret that she would carry to her grave.
