"Is there a point when you get done going to school?" Anders wondered. "Or is it just a cycle of tests and school until you drop dead?"

In a year or so, that word choice might strike him as painfully ironic. But for now, it was an idle joke, a comment no sooner made than half-forgotten as Anders looked back at his book.

"I was reading Thedan history," he explained. "Trying to figure out if there was any reason anyone would go to Kirkwall, let alone me."