silence is golden unless you have a toddler

It was a question she hadn't really allowed herself to dwell on. What did she make of Ashen's collapse? Given their shared history, she doubted she would need to sugarcoat any of it for the Kaicho's sake. "I grew up hearing tales of the Empire's might but I never saw it first hand. I wonder if Ashen even existed in more than the memory of those that clung to it by the time I came along?" What was there to make of it? A corpse rotted away, left to the elements for long enough, until even bleached bones crumbled. It was the natural order of things.

Did she miss it? What was there to miss? Modesty had claimed the Islands and made something of them, and when her purpose changed, she moved to suit it. "Others seemed to place worth to to the name, but stagnant water loses it's purity, putrefies. Change is nothing to be feared." She shrugged. She hoped wherever her mother was that she knew what had happened, for whatever small measure of satisfaction it might bring her. "What do you make of it? Have you heard word of where my Uncle went?"

"speech"