"Ah, solitary reading," Pit said, holding back the eagerness from his voice. "That's an activity I'm rather familiar with. Father didn't have much nice to say, and Mother made me relive every awful word, plus a few of her own. So I stayed in the library every afternoon from when I was six, or I took my books to the gardens or the tower. I suppose now that I think about it, it's a little odd no one questioned the six-year-old devouring Helmund."

Ravenna's ears swiveled forward. ...