“We all have assigned roles to play, Alister,” Gryphon said. “You may have been born to the streets. I was born to the nobility. But some of us fall short of family expectations. In my case, far short.” He laughed bitterly. “Here’s the abridged version: I was born with a misshapen leg, but at least I could walk—with a pronounced limp. That, however, was not good enough for my parents. They engaged a wizard healer to make the necessary repairs, to produce the perfect son they had anticipated. Unfortunately”—he gazed down at his charred legs—“things went badly wrong.

“But I was all they had to work with. Though my parents were forced to lower their expectations, they still had hopes. For instance, I could become powerful politically. And I could marry Fiona Bayar.” Gryphon looked up to where the wisteria bloomed on the trellised ceiling. “It didn’t matter that the Bayars had always treated me like—what would you call it, Alister—a scummer?”

Han nodded, surprised his former teacher was familiar with the word. “Scummer.”

“I hate the Bayars—every single one of them,” Gryphon went on. “Oden’s Ford was the first place that I ever felt valued. I plunged into the life of the scholar, and found, to my delight, that my brain was totally unimpaired. I finished my master’s work and fully intended to continue on teaching and researching, as far away from my parents as I could get.

“Then I met Mordra, and one thing led to another, and we fell in love. I was happy for the first time in my life.

“But my parents had other plans,” he said. “I was to marry Fiona, not Mordra, and I was to return to Fellsmarch to take my hereditary place on the Wizard Council and spend my life politicking with people who pity and despise me.”

It struck Han that he and Gryphon had more in common that he’d ever imagined. No matter who you were, parental expectations could be a curse. Han’s mother had believed he was demon-cursed, and was never able to get beyond that. Gryphon’s parents had never seen the value in him, either, because they couldn’t get past his physical imperfection.

“My family had no particular plan for me,” Mordra said, breaking into Han’s thoughts. “Except that it didn’t include my marrying someone as…impaired…as Adam. We had to keep our relationship a secret. There are too many wagging tongues even at the academy. It was worse once Micah and Fiona and their cousins arrived. It seemed hopeless that we could ever be together.”

Han recalled his inability to read Gryphon at Oden’s Ford, to figure out how he really felt about the Bayars. “I…How can I put this? When I was your student, I had the impression that you despised me.”