She laughs, mouth yawning wide. "My planet? No way. The Empire didn't care what other species might be feeling; if it couldn't be said in our language, it wasn't worth listening to.

"Glinting was for the species outside the Empire, the ones that cared about negotiating and coexisting and working together, instead of just crushing everything in their path. Explorers, pirates, mercenaries, long-term investors: they invented glinting. The Living People just didn't care."