239 A Palace of One's Own

Arran eagerly accepted the Elder's offer to show him the mansion. He could still scarcely believe that the palatial manor house would soon be his, and the prospect of exploring it filled him with excitement.

He had grown up the son of a simple guard, lucky just to have a bedroom of his own. Yet now, he was casually granted a mansion bigger than those of even the wealthiest merchants in Riverbend.

It was a place he would once have thought fit for kings and princes, and the idea that it would be his seemed almost absurd.

Of course, he knew the mansion wouldn't truly belong to him — a single word from the Matriarch and it would be taken away. But even so, at least for the moment, it was his. And if he was hardly preoccupied with luxury, he wouldn't reject it, either.