"Only through hardship and sorrow."

Cryptic as ever. Matoya folded her aged hands together and brought them to rest on the table. "I'm glad you don't have any ridiculous notions about putting everything back how it was. Quite impossible. No one likes to hear it." For all anyone might be able to tell, she could well just be talking to herself, rambling on as she does when left to her hermitage. It is not unusual for her to hold entire conversations with someone in advance of their meeting, odd as that be.

To dispel the notion that she was dismissing her visitor by ignoring him, she said bluntly. "You have other questions. Ask them."