Cassandra would never cease deriving a secret pleasure from seeing that kind of reaction to the size of her family. The strange part was, she had never really thought of it as being all that big. At least, not abnormally big. That's just the way things were in Troy.

Thoughts of Polyxena, however, diminished her pleasure slightly. She nodded. "Polyxena was everything a child ought to be. Curious. Thoughtful. Playful. Kind." Everything Cassandra had once been, before a certain god robbed her of that innocence.

She shrugged. "She had a spark. I can't think of a better way to put it, better words. She was just...so alive."