This chapter's epigraph comes from a famous poem by Alexandre Dumas, entitled "Poins de fleur-de-lis." In this poem, a French noblewoman named Poins describes herself as a "slick shulin" . Poins, who is a member of the Windsor tribe, is a young woman who has been taught swordsmanship by her master, a general named katherine. She is also the daughter of the general who taught her sword-fighting, a man named Abner. Abner's mother is the only woman in the royal family, and Poins is jealous of her son's superiority.