Status:

1797: Hval

Born to Die

Extract from the Virtues of Knighthood: Justice

"He hardly ever spoke except for when he had to, and spent most of his time skulking in the biggest daughter’s shadow. Hval isn't a problem, she hopes, but she has the feeling there’s more to his silence than cowardice. 

She can't read him. There is nothing behind his words, few as they are. There is nothing behind his eyes, though she is sure there must be something. There has to be something. There can’t not be. But whatever there is in his mind is hidden well. Buried beneath possibly years of skilled masking and carefully crafted clay faces. He never snaps in a hunt, he never barks at folamh, he never sings the songs of freedom that the other three howl into the night. He is strangely detached from them, but moves as though he is an extension of their own wings and claws.

Malconire does not make the folly of assuming his placidity is kindness. His silence does not denote goodness, justice or mercy, and when he lurks in the darkness behind the others she can see him watching, and when the others bite and snap at folamh she can tell he is calculating, waiting for a perfect moment. He is strange, but he is not a friend, and Malconire warns folamh away from him the most. At least the others were upfront about their brutish persuasions."

She learns about Hval first because there is almost nothing to learn.