There’s something in Darlington’s expression that Palamedes can’t read—he’s rather good at reading people, but they don’t know each other well, so fair enough. He must be digesting the unsettling truth of the world’s destruction, or so Pal assumes until Darlington speaks. The comment quite surprises him. Pal is used to imagining those early refugees and their descendants as the unlucky ones, most of them still stranded outside the security of the Empire. But the perspective must have been very different when they were fleeing a dying planet. “I suppose so. To be honest, I don’t know why some people left while others stayed. Perhaps they had the means when others didn’t, or perhaps they had lost everything and no other options remained to them. Or perhaps they were just better at predicting what lay ahead.” He shrugs. “I do wish I knew more. There are so many myths, you know? So many concepts that everyone takes for granted. And it’s all based in history with scant documentation.”