text: "And how was your visit to Dorday?" I asked Tarcuna, as she clopped out of the armored car that had brought her from the airport.
  
  "Miserable. My family still thinks I'm a traitor. My ex-girlfriend still thinks I'm a traitor. My former friends from college don't want to talk to me at all. My former friends from the Red Spire and such are mostly in protective quarantine camps and wormridden and I don't want to talk to them. I can't think of anything I'd say to them. The one that's out didn't want to talk to me either. Having an honor guard of the dragon's most trusted soldiers to protect me didn't help one bit."
  
  "Poor hoven," I said, and patted her on the head. She glared at me, so I stopped. "But didn't you expect that when you set off?" Since she had said as much.
  
  "I expected everything but meeting Ailenne in the street," she said. "Ovor, please put my luggage in my bedroom? I should be safe enough with Spotty around." The guard was not pleased at being ordered around, but he didn't argue.
  
  "Who?"
  
  "You. You're Spotty, right?"
  
  I puffed winter fog at her. "Only to people who haven't learned to talk right. Who is Ailenne?"
  
  "An occasional worker at Red Spires."
  
  I asked, "One of your former lovers?" since I am trying hard to act like a grownup.
  
  "Half of Dorday are my former lovers," lied Tarcuna. "I thought she was wormridden. She certainly knew all about it, and seemed quite sincere. You didn't heal her?"
  
  "No, just you and Bthera. I wanted to check with Llredh about it. After a bath and a nap. The driver went out of his way to find rough roads whenever I nodded off, or turn the radio on high."