"That is the nature of change, my Lord," she says softly as she stands slowly. Nerdanel approaches him, her face pale but serious.

"You either accept the change, flow with it as a ship does the sea, or you fight it -- swim upstream, swim against the current. If you choose to swim, my Lord, you will most likely drown. What is it you fear about these changes? You have left him, for months by our reckoning, and now you flail about because he chooses to leave you for a few days?"