After Ser Lannister and his party depart, Lady Alys sends me with a message to House Carsen. It’s a lovely afternoon, so I’m happy to have the chance to go for a long ride with Kusa and August, and we meander down the gentle hills under the sun. After about an hour, we arrive, and I can’t help but notice the magnificent progress the builders have made at his home. They’ve still got a long way to go, but I think about how exciting it must feel to watch something be made from nothing each day.

Olira greets me warmly outside their stead, and shares that Carsen isn’t home, but agrees to take the message and share it with her husband when he returns. The message is not a particularly good one, the builders are being conscripted to work on the sept, and her disappointment is palpable. Olira asks a few questions that I do not have the answers for, but I encourage her to send Carsen to meet with the Jaspers when he gets back. On that note, I ask earnestly, “By the way, where is Carsen?”. She shares without hesitation that he’s been leaving to go to the mountains recently, and when she asks what he’s doing up there he responds that she wouldn’t understand. How mysterious!! I thank her for her time and agreement to deliver the message to Ser Carsen, and express my hope that we see them at Snownook soon.

Pulled by my curiosity, once well out of sight of the Thorne residence, I pull our little party far off the path and behind some foliage, and warg into my helpful raven friend to head to the mountains and seek out Carsen’s whereabouts.