I started reading the second of the Earthsea books to Abbey last night. The books' opening scenes depict a family that is about to have one of their children taken away from them to be consecrated into the priesthood of their gods. The mother tries to show the child as much love as she can while she still has her, as the father looks on with impotent rage.

This raised a lot of questions for Abbey. She couldn't understand why the parents would let her go if they didn't want to, why...