Chapter 106

"Don't think too harshly of them. Lind's laws have kept you all barricaded against the rest of the world, and they had their reasons when those laws were made. But it didn't stop the world from changing outside the Bounds. The Old Ones are wise and kind, but they are also men--very old men. I'm told Thorne lost count of his age after he passed his hundred-and-fiftieth year, and no one even remembers how long ago that was." Dallin softened his tone. "Men are fallible, and you can't blame them for being so." Though it would certainly make Dallin feel better if he could. He sighed. "Who knows? Had I grown up here, had I not been taken away and lived in the world for all those years, I may have thought the same way as they do."

He actually doubted that one, in his heart, but he wasn't sure if that was merely wishful thinking, so he didn't say it aloud.