The first memory Beyari has is fear. Indistinct, blurred by a toddler's lack of comprehension. But she does remember the feeling of something dangerous watching her and what she would, at a later age and with better understanding, describe as a toddler's equivalent of "if I don't move or make a noise, the monster can't find me".

Had someone told Steirdrar last year that he would not only meet a warrior of the Eskel-Zai culture — a rarity this long into the war, many of the clans that had joined it having dwindled close to nothingness — but also become friends with them, he would have looked around to see who had dared this someone to present such an absurd claim to him.

"'The Incident'?" Thokel could not help huffing out a laugh when the two siblings adopted near-identical blank expressions. "What did you do?" --- "Best you don't know." Beyari took a prolonged sip of her drink. "Yes, it is best that you don't know indeed," Steirdrar insisted.