She is grateful, far too grateful — to excess. Witches, she knows, swear their oaths in blood, and merchants write their contracts. She is only a woman and cannot ask a man to swear himself, not when she has made her trade of pretending she is unfettered and carefree.

And later, she will bring her niece, and she will pass her into her boy's custody. It will break her heart, but it must be done, before the girl grows to see the only profession a girl can aspire to in Sa-Hareth without exposure to the clashes is the one of her aunt's house.

For now, Tamaiu takes Mingyu's hand, and she honours her word, "You call him Haltham, but I know, though he does not name himself, he was Arne once."