"And no one appreciates a room full of cynics." A room full of cynics could be right, but endless negativity never assisted anything. It only bogged it down in doubt and worry and the feeling that nothing would ever be good enough. Waver respected anyone who could do otherwise, especially since it was his own nature to look at something and see right through it. "Orlais seemed easier to account for though, from what I heard. Kirkwall's own history suggests certain ends, and it feels less like fighting odds and more like fighting history. And I think that's a scarier force than anything else."

There was an unsaid but not impossible. Waver had considered such things in regards to magi matters back home, but those were deeply private ruminations. Only a few people knew about those thoughts.

"Mmm. I think what our ships back home look like would surprise you, but there's a combination of comfort and luxury in knowing some things and patterns endure through centuries." London survived plagues and fires and wars and the Thames still flowed, and it still was a pleasure to walk along in the early spring evenings, before the tourist season kicked off properly.

"That is strange. Is there a reason for it, or just chance?"