Shortbeak was no wide eyed, naive idealist. She knew first impressions could be deceptive and frankly had been waiting until the initial veneer of novelty and culture shock had subsided, as Gethrenian highborns were decidedly more raucous than ones in her home kingdom, before seeing exactly the sort of nest she had made for herself. She had been rather alarmed when first impressions were a fairly accurate portrayal. There was the expected jockeying and political hemming and hawing, but it was nowhere near the vindictive viciousness she had been expecting in her cynicism.