The simple truth about the Western Islands is that there is not enough land for everybody. A patch of fertile land or a peninsula inhabitated by giant crayfish may be worth a fortune. Certainly worth dying for.

The nobility of the islands is unbeliavibly strict about land ownage, vassalage and power polictics. Marriages, alliances and disputes follow rules that foreigners can barely understand.

Few topics are more complex than duels. To yielding, to first blood, to death; place of combat; time of combat; how many witnesses; weapons of combat... The variables and how they combine are infinite. As are the consequences of the duel.

And that's how we got to this: Nariza Marei could have survived that duel. Unfortunately, the consequences would have been worse for her house. So, she just kept going and going, until she could not go anymore. And the biggest tragedy, was that she had no husband, no heirs. She sacrificed herself for a name that died with her. Something not unheard among the Western Islands...

Off. The sequel to this, finally. I think I'm finally getting to a point when I mostly trust my art. At least I don't want to throw 4 in 5 pics away anymore. I just throw 3 away now...