She's right, of course, in a way that Fern's parents would undoubtedly agree with were she discussing any other subject. But their marriage was one that had been arranged when they were still teenagers, and Fern had watched both her older brothers enter into similar marriages, knowing well in advance that the same would eventually be true for her, too. That's simply how things had been within the alienages, and for the elves who tried to make lives for themselves in the countryside outside the cities, the patterns nevertheless reasserted themselves.

Rather than say no to those expectations, however, Fern had simply... left. Acknowledging that brings with it a needling stab of guilt that suddenly has her looking downcast at her hands, her eyebrows knitting together into a frown. "I didn't even tell my parents I left. To join the Grey Wardens, I mean. I never told them anything, before I left."