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Earendil nodded slowly. "Well ... he is still young," he reminded her, "and he's a lot more sensitive than he likes to pretend. But we'll see what we can do."

He felt sorry for Amalirahc. He knew that in the worry about Leyenda, the boy tended to be a bit forgotten. Still, he understood how Miyuki felt. It was hard to try to help someone when it was so easy to hurt their feelings without meaning to.

Earendil chuckled softly. "I think I know what you mean. That sometimes he seems older than he is. He is quite smart for his age. And it makes it harder to remember just how young he is."

He reached around her and gave her a one-armed hug. "We'll worry about that later, all right? For now let's just focus on our dinner."

He smiled at her. They were there to visit after all.

The meal passed pleasantly, and at the end, Lothiriel had a caution to give to their guests.

"Enjoy your stay," she told them warmly, "but I would advise against going into the city on Elenya next. Anarya might be a good day to avoid the city as well. We had a sentencing today, and there's going to be an execution, which I'm sure you would all like to avoid."

Andarien looked up at Earendil, who was pointedly looking away from him, and then reached across his father and tugged on Lin's sleeve in hopes that she would help him.

"Nana," he asked her, "what's she saying?"

He could tell that it was bad, whatever it was, but he didn't understand most of what she had said.

Andarien blinked at her. "Why?" he asked. "If you explain I can understand!"

He didn't want to be left out, after all.

Andarien's brow furrowed in confusion. "Why?" he asked again. "Don't you understand it either, Nana?"

he felt a twinge of fear. If there was something that his (seemingly) all-knowing mother didn't know about, then it must be really huge! She'd never kept anything from him before, that he knew of.

"You know," Earendil mused softly, "it might be good for him to at least understand what's going on. A lesson in responsibility for one's actions. It's better than waiting until he's older to learn about punishments."

"Oh," Andarien murmured, his brow furrowing thoughtfully. He turned to his father. "Ada, what does it mean, breaking the law?"

Earendil smiled at his son. "Well, you know how we have things that tell you not to do, right? Don't hit people, don't take things that aren't yours ... right?"

Andarien nodded.

"Well," Earendil went on, "when it is a king or queen who makes such big rules for the whole kingdom, those are called laws. They're much bigger than the kind of rules that we give you. If a person disobeys, that means they're breaking the law. They're doing things they're not allowed to do."

"Oh!" Andarien nodded his head more eagerly now that he understood better. But then he tilted his head again and looked back at Lin. "But what did he do? I want to make sure I don't do it, too! I don't want to be punished!"