Not sure if I should speak or keep my big mouth shut. I take the risk. ‘Thing is,’ I say, ‘that is the greater cause. Isn’t it? All those tales put together. Tales from prisoners and down-trodden women and ordinary working folk. Like a lot of threads, frayed and weak they might be, woven into something big and strong and beautiful. And powerful.’

‘A tapestry of justice,’ says Conmael, and gives me a proper smile. ‘Now seems the right time for me to tell you that I am already aware of the meeting, or council, that lies before you.’ He means Blackthorn, not me. ‘You have not seen me for some while, that is true. But I never ceased to watch over you, my friend. Many parties have been working to make this thing happen, and happen both safely and secretly.’

‘You knew about it?’ Blackthorn’s shocked. ‘But waited until it was too late for us to get there?’

‘Look on what has occurred as a test. As events fell out, you were provided with an opportunity to demonstrate that you had learned the hard lesson I set you. For a long while you allowed your quest for vengeance to govern you. It came close to consuming the woman you had been – a person of great strength, sound judgement and remarkable compassion. Oh, you had good cause,’ Conmael adds quickly, like he’s expecting me or Blackthorn to interrupt. ‘To want justice, that cannot be a bad thing. But to let your want eat away at your heart . . . that would have been to pass victory into the hands of your enemy.

‘I watched and waited. I saw you come close to failing. I saw you on the brink of giving up hope. I watched you stumble and fall and pick yourself up again. When you were too worn out to rise, I saw your friend lift you up. I saw you learn, and I hoped. Today you made a choice. That woman I knew before, the one full of bitterness and hate, would not have set aside her chance for vengeance in order to help a friend. Not even to save his life.’

He smiles, and it’s a nice open one. Takes away that distant look. ‘This lesson has been hard for you to learn. At times it has cost you dear. Never more so than in the final choosing. But Grim is here, and safe. And your chance to bring Mathuin of Laois to justice still lies before you.’

Blackthorn’s been getting twitchier as he makes his speech, with more time passing. ‘In a way, yes,’ she says now. ‘But we can’t get there when we were meant to. Unless . . . unless you really can turn back time, and do it without harming Grim.’