"Of course not," Jehan says, with a fond half-smile, "just like a bourgeois is no better than a gamin, but our France--and theirs--assigned very different importance to each. I can't remember if, or how, daemon shapes figured into the world's false hierarchies. Were eagle daemons more highly esteemed than snake or wolf daemons? And if so, how did that combine with the aristocracy of birth? If the crown prince had a wolf daemon, could he claim the throne?"

Jehan laughs quietly, and shrugs. "I remember naught of it, I simply wonder."