"I wish more on the Continent thought as you do," she says, frankly. "Instead, kings and queens, sorcerers and sorceresses, elves and men – they all cower to destiny's whims. There was once a prophecy that doom would come at the hands of sixty women born under an eclipse. So what did they do, the wise men of the Continent?"

She takes her mug of beer and rolls it between her palms, shaking her head. "They hunted down those girls. Some of them they killed and cut apart, looking for proof that they were cursed. Others they locked away in high towers, never to be seen again. Of those who escaped, many did turn cruel or insane, murderers and thieves. But would they, if they hadn't been treated that way from the start?"