were

thinking earlier. Not all of those problems are technical, either. Do you mind some of the other stories your granny used to tell? About the leprechauns, or the mysterious strangers who gave gold where it was most needed?”
“Aye,” Sam replied, again falling into the brogue of his childhood, to match the lilt of Keighvin’s speech. “But those strangers were the holy saints, or angels in disguise, sent from the Virgin, she said—”
Keighvin snorted. “Holy saints? Is that what you mortal folk decided? Nay, Sam, ’twas us. At least, it was us when there were hungry children to feed, and naught to feed them with; when there was no fuel in the house, and children freezing. When some mortal fool sires children, but won’t be a father to them, leaving the mother to struggle alone. Our kind—we don’t bear as easily or often as you. Children are rare and precious