Fairspell Meadow just test driving the new soup strainer.

It was almost the exact opposite of what had happened to her. She'd chosen to stay while Rams and Euron went, while her brother had gone away from all the rest of them. She frowned in some sympathy at the situation, murmuring, I'm sorry you had to go through all that. Upheaval like that in a young child's life was difficult. Unfair. But things happened, she knew.

Maegi heard the hope in Eshe's voice and couldn't bear to give her the truth—at least the whole truth. Yes, eventually, she said, her frown lifting into a pleasant expression once more. One of my brothers and I returned to our home, found everyone gone, and started a new pack there. So I think you'll be just fine.

Was it cruel to give false optimism to a girl? Ramsay, after all, had eventually left again. And her one run-in with Euron had been a brief anomaly: she'd never seen him since. But Maegi's situation was different from Eshe's; she couldn't judge the Frostfurs based on her own fractured family. Things very well might be different for this child. Maegi fervently hoped they were.