Clever, although Petra won't think of it - so clever as to be very distracting from its purpose. (The unfortunate thing is that Martel is fairly thoroughly entwined with much of what she remembers. Ordinarily she'd be far past letting those recollections hurt - sometimes she even thinks fondly of better days - but tonight has stirred up what she never thought to have disturbed.)

"It certainly had its moments. It was a very...difficult time to be a Pandion, or to be connected to them - I could be sheltered from that in the countryside, but Cimmura was another story entirely. I've heard it said that we were in a state of silent civil war, and I suppose it's true. Have you heard the saying that one doesn't speak ill of the dead? We don't speak of King Aldreas at all any more, not truly. People mention in passing how far we've come without talking about what we came from."