[he's not going to try to explain that his family is the political rivals. he hasn't totally reconciled it himself. he shakes his head.]

Me and my sisters--my mother turned up later--and people from all different worlds. The Clock was like a world, but made up of different rooms, with a mind of its own. You would ask to go from room to room, and it would show you a door. We called it the Clock because--well, there was a room with a large clock, and I suppose the ones that came before us named it after that. There were other--little clocks, on the walls or in the tiles...[he takes a swig of beer.] The people that wanted to hurt us--they were back in the Seven Kingdoms, or in the Free Cities, some of them. Our world--if our planet had a name, I never knew. We were too busy fighting over our own little pieces of it.

[he says this sardonically and swigs his beer again. it hasn't escaped his notice that she's turned his inquiry around on him.]

You still haven't told me much about this world, besides how lonely all the children are.