"I couldn't, not with everything that was going on," Kaya told him. "I could pretend things were all right maybe, but they weren't, and that was a fact. What was real was that the war would come to us, eventually, and acting like it wouldn't was just a bad plan."

She shook her head. "Arranged marriages are a part of my culture, one that, like my teacher, I don't really give much stock in. One day I'll have children, but I want it to be with someone I choose, someone who is right to be with me, who understands me. I am not typical of my tribe Nokosi: they want a girl who would do what is expected, and that hasn't been me for a long time."

Kaya chuckled. "Changing the world means making it a safer place for children, whether they are mine or someone else's. It doesn't matter there: I want to do my part in making this world, this universe, a better place. I'm not much, but I can at least try, can't I?"