Catherine urged, "Go ahead, speak."
Portia hesitated, then revealed, "The answers from my informants are somewhat varied.
But there are a few words that are consistently mentioned: 'west,' 'tia,' and 'Aragon'."
Catherine repeated these three words, utterly confused.
Howard stood up and walked towards the window, gazing out at the seascape.
Catherine asked if there was any more intelligence, to which Portia replied there wasn't.
Later, Howard left the ducal residence and rode to the Lagusa Merchants' Guild.
He theorized that these merchants, with their wealth of information and unique experiences gathered from travels far and wide, might hold the key to this puzzle.
This idea was promising, but discretion was paramount.
Should this Castilian plan become common knowledge across the continent through the merchant network, the value of solving the mystery would be greatly diminished.
