Yes, it's kind of a grim story, isn't it? I think the more so because Valaria clearly thinks she's doing the best possible thing, even though it hurts Cottia now - like a Chinese mother binding her daughter's feet, back in the day.

I feel that there's a lot of pain inherent in Cottia's backstory, though she skims over it in the book - being sent away by her mother had to be miserable.

Ack, I'm already working on a "Cottia realizes Nissa is a human being too" story...And by working on I mean I hopped out of bed and wrote the whole damn thing. Eagle fic is so bad for my sleep cycle. (Want to read it?)

But yes, I probably need to write Valaria's backstory too. I will probably write a post about working out what would be plausible...