Opening post by Lady Barbrey Dustin · #1
Every few years somebody swears they have the answer to this, and every few years it turns out they had a story instead.
The question, put plainly: whether the maesters' chain has held back more than it has held up. I think the plain answer is the true one, and everybody has talked themselves past it.
The thing that unsettles me is that the people best placed to know went to considerable trouble to leave no record. Men do not do that over nothing.
Ask me again after the first frost; my answer will have moved.