Anwei shivered a bit inside, imagining what her world would have been like if people could stand endless stress AND perform super-normal heroics at the drop of a word. Would it be nothing but freedom and justice - or would her species have found a way to rule those heroes as well?

"Then everything we can do to take some of the stress away from him - and from Ronnae - can only help," she said stoutly.

Completely without her realizing it, Anwei started to move her left hand at her side on narrow spirals, as though winding the tips of her braids around it for the familiar warm weight. "If I were to guess, I'd say she feels that everything she knows is broken, and that she is the last real thing in the world. And at the same time, she knows that she is broken, that she isn't supposed to feel or think like this; but that to admit that would be to fall entirely to pieces."

She noticed her hand's motion, and stilled it. Talk about bad memories...