"That isn't all you have to know," Katsa said, and there was something strained in her voice—as though she wasn't wholly sure she believed it, either.

It was a testament to how long she'd been in Allaidh Darach, how accustomed she'd grown to it, that she didn't immediately question the length of time his people had been dead nor how he'd survived it. Katsa pushed her mug back and forth between her hands before she added, "I am sorry, though. About your people. And whatever war caused it."