The Trials of Koli (Rampart Trilogy #2)

by M.R. Carey

It was a sad dream, that hung on me after I waked up and left a sadness in me for hours after.

Catrin spoke to us all, not in the Count and Seal but on the gather-ground. She bade us keep six paces apart, each from other, unless we lived in the same house and could not keep from being close.

In any case, you should let her make the choice. And doing nothing, by the way, is making the choice for her. It’s not a neutral option. There is no neutral option.”