Mathea wakes to light filtering into the cave, the angle suggesting it is noon or nearly so. Magistra Colle is sitting on the broad flat rock in front of the cave mouth, watching the sun on the calm sea. Nobody else is awake. In the distance, the sails of two ships show above the horizon. "Do you really believe ancient histories matter?" she challenges the Sage, who looks around with a smile. "There's a story underlying the Ardrigor unification," she says, which doesn't impress Mathea, who told the same thing to Inric only a few days before. "They say the Urdis clan came first. That's how they justified their claim to rule." Mathe pushes aside her blanket and gets up, careful not to wake Ylva. "I've been mapping the settling of clans across Saldissay and Skalvar," Magistra Colle goes on, and Mathea feels obliged to make a grumpy noise at the suggestion of a connection. The Sage grins, not at all offended. "We are related, you know," she says.