"Interviews, as well. Talking to someone is always a good way to get a sense of them."

"...I don't think I trust myself to be good at that." 

"I'm not bad at it. I've certainly read people wrongly before, but... It's a skill you learn, over time."

"Have you ever been as wrong about someone as I was about my mother?" 

"My first fiance, I suppose. I thought him boorish, but not bad."

"--Oh. Yes. There is that, I suppose." 

"Most of my other mistakes were not as major."

"...My mistake with Mother might have been bigger, though. I loved her. I thought she loved me." 

She nods. "I - my father participated in the witch hunt against Hiram. I wasn't close to him by then, but..."

"Honestly to hell with terrible parents, they can rot until necromancy is so widespread that someone with no connection to us whatsoever stumbles across their graves and raises them on general principle." 

She laughs. "Certainly we don't need to rush them up the queue."

"Anyone you do want rushed up the queue?" 

"My son, a few students and fellow teachers..."

"--Was he okay? Your son?" 

"He outlived me, and escaped his father's shadow well enough, I believe. He was - a very restless sort. Didn't stay in our little town."

"Huh. I wonder how it was that our family returned, then." 

"My granddaughter returned. She had a fondness for the town I honestly found strange."

"Hm. Not that I in particular was unhappy there, but I can't say it has much in particular to recommend it..." 

"It's very small in many ways."

"You're not wrong." 

"We probably would have left at some point if I had never died, having to interact with my parents on a regular basis was...not going to be indefinitely sustainable." 

"Understandable. I came back to the town, in the end, but early on - I often traveled to teach at this school or that."

"It sounds like you accomplished a lot." 

"I tried, with what I could."

"I don't know enough about your students to say what you did for them, but your compilation of your and your husband's notes were amazingly helpful."