"When I was younger, it was easier to make these sorts of decisions," Isabell repeated. "But now... now I have Casquas, and my daughter Issandra, who's just begun her apprenticeship with the Shipwright's Guild. She's just taking her first steps out into the world, and she needs a safe home to return to."
"And my son Lassian still needs a bit of guidance to keep his hot head from getting him into trouble he can't handle," she added with a wry smile and a faint chuckle as she thought about her son's growing interest in the young women around him and his father's 'advice' about wooing them using his poetry. Already it had led to a few moments of public embarrassment and one spectacular fist fight when he unknowingly selected someone else's fiancée as the object of his desire.
