Blackfeather Woods and he spent a long time watching from his lonely wooden tower

She would have rather had Relmyna cut her open, leave her bleeding. This. . .this was worse. Every word was a wound; she cringed like a wolf flayed, caught between bursting into tears and ripping the Listener apart. This wasn't her fault--she had wanted to leave the girl, to avoid another war. To keep the Woods safe. And Cicero--

How dare she? Maegi was just about to open her mouth to retort when she caught the defensiveness in Mou's gaze, and knew at once she couldn't hang him out to dry.

Mistakes aside, Mou was her best friend. He was the only one that truly understood her. This was his fault, and she wouldn't shrink from that truth, but she also would not use him as a shield against Relmyna's wrath. This would be solved without betrayal. She just had to stay calm.

Stay calm.

"Mou and this girl knew each other once," Maegi began, the fury just barely simmering under her tone. "I don't know when--it was before I met him. He washed up on the beach with no memories; I found him there. They ran into each other again recently." She glanced over at Mou, face drawn. "Mou was trying to help her. I think. . .I think he gave her the wrong plant. I wasn't there."

She cast her gaze toward the Listener, fiercely insistent. "I want war even less than you do," she declared. "I lost everything because of what happened last time. And I tried to stop this--but it would have been the same result, if Mou had left her there. She would have gone home and told her family, and they would have come for us.

"This was a mistake, a misunderstanding," Maegi finished. "This is between Mou and this girl--not Blackfeather and her family. Relmyna, I don't think he meant any harm. We can solve this, somehow."