Early on in the book, one of the anecdotes about the Staryk is how once a family from another village tried to save a wounded Staryk knight. Instead of being grateful, like magic beings from other lands, the Staryk proceeded to murder the almost the entire family, then dragged itself back to its mount and rode back to the winter lands. While this was initially given as one more example of how evil the Staryk are, it makes more sense later when we find out that their entire society cannot stand to be in debt, to the point that even saying "thank you" is a sign of weakness and an inability to repay another. As the Staryk King explains when he himself has been run through with a spear: to have someone else aid him, unasked, and save his life would mean that he would be irrevocably in their debt, and they would be able to ask anything they wanted of him, and the Staryk would rather die than owe that to a mortal.
The very fur cloak that Miriam takes in payment for a debt, and her mother objects to winds up helping to keep the mother warm when lost in the woods.
Wanda's Beige Prose might make her seem less emotionally invested (although her actions do not). This makes sense when taken in context with the fact that she has no education whatsoever when the story begins; she only learns to read partway through the story. That, coupled with the fact that she's stuck in survival mode until she reaches the house of Miryem's grandfather, explains why she describes events in such basic terms.
