( of gryphons, bee knows very little — but dragons, she knows much. there isn't a child in the six duchies who hasn't heard the nightmare inducing stories of the duke of chalced carving scaly flesh from the shoulder of an elderling man to cannibalize and save his health, with varying success depending on who told the story. it sounds like that — dragon infected elderlings, made lizardlike and serpentine through magic. curing the blind. retribution. just and deserved, bee thinks, for dragons and gryphons to take their noble place in the world.

it's easier for bee, naturally. people of her father's generation lived thousands and thousands of years without dragons — the only life bee has known has been one full of dragons and magic and ancient civilizations reborn. gryphons are as real to her as dragons, and dragons are as real to her as her own two hands. )

I will become the Destroyer. But — I hope not, with you. Shanks. You are very kind. Too kind. ( a hundred eyes on her body water with fat, baby tears. ) I want my mommy.

( and she cries, for a mother that has been dead for years, and for a father who last spoke to her to tell her all the reasons he had to leave her behind. neither would recognize her now. there's no one in the world to love her. only shanks, and only maybe. )