As she listens, Teren's eyes narrow almost imperceptibly. She hopes that Morrigan misspeaks, that she's referring only to the Orlesian nobility and not to the people of its extensive lands; but assuming never got anyone anywhere, and she's not about it.

"Will they indeed," she says with a practiced coolness. Vultures, sharks, hungry dogs: what they all have in common is their constant search for sustenance. Sustenance not freely offered by the fat and wealthy. A reckoning is long overdue.

"I suppose we shall find out."