“Pan,” Valerie’s voice was quiet but insistent. “Stay here for a few minutes.”

He stopped, watching as the rest of the group retreated down the passage. “What’s wrong?”

“We need to go home, Pan. Now.”

“All right. Let me go tell Thia.”

A small smile appeared on her face, “She already knows.”

He blinked. “How?”

Valerie turned around, and Pan moved with her. “I talked to her on our way here. The family, our mother, needs us both right now. We have to bury our uncle, and you have to take up the job that is yours. Thia needs to find her own way.”

He kept his arm at her elbow, ready to help if she needed it, “Do you think she’ll come home?”

“It’s up to her to decide where ‘home’ is, Pan. Not us. She’d be welcomed. I do understand, though, that family has not always done right by her. We can’t force that change to happen. It has to come from within her.”

They slipped out a back door, making sure the Innkeeper didn’t see them leave. If they kept a good pace, Pan would have her back in Cirrain before dinner had been cleared away.