Blacktail Deer Plateau I See Clearly Now

"The West?" He felt a flush of heat, and Malachi was glad he'd kept himself from guessing. Still, he struggled to suppress his surprise, and after a moment he shook his head in a gesture to compose himself. "That's a place I wouldn't've guessed." Malachi had no bearing but the Plateau, and his expeditions so far had taken him no further than the southern tip of the flatlands. The ocean had stretched to the west of Duskfire, but what lay west of here he couldn't guess. He hadn't tried in fear of seeing Caiaphas again.

The wraith disturbed his memory, and remained a ghost there, though he tried to fix his attention on Pearl. "I'm from the North, but not as far as some." In his upheaval, he'd chosen at random to strike south. That was already over a year ago, but his family in the Vale remained strong in his memory. A hollowness twisted his chest, and he redirected the conversation to Pearl again. "Do you find there are many differences between the plains and here?"