Dragoncrest Cliffs my face (worth 1 thousand ships)

So you lied to us. Mallaidh looks down. Doesn’t Eske realize she understands that it had been wrong? She’s explained herself to Blixen and Artaax and… well, anyone else that might ask (except Ephraim, but he hadn’t been around when she was).

“I was scared,” she repeats. She’d been a child, a few months old, in the hands of warriors. Drageda life had been intimidating and not being born in it paints a different view than those that know what to expect. “I didn’t want to. I didn’t know what would happen but with the war and everything… I was… I was just a scared kid.” Still a scared kid. Being a kid is hardly an excuse for dragon born wolves, but how can they expect the same from her being several months behind?

It’s not going to be an answer good enough for her former mentor, she knows that, but she’s still talking to her, still giving her the chance to earn it. She doesn’t claim to be Drakru but she is loyal to Drageda, to head, to Blixen (in allegiance only, it seems).

“I will earn it,” she says, firmly standing beside her choice. She knows she may never earn it from Eske but the only way to do it is to prove it. All she has left is given to Drageda, she’ll show them.