She shakes her head, quick to reassure. 'It never took that from me. To me, it seemed you were all speaking Sector Standard like me, except when people made a very concerted effort not to. Which is how I learned some Japanese from Nobunaga.' Tayrey smiles at the memory. 'He called me Ari-kun sometimes. In private.' She'd had to ask Yato what it meant, but even before she knew, she'd sensed the significance, Ari Tayrey who understands levels of formality and gradations of meaning better than most.

She doesn't mention that the people closest to her, the people she trusted, sometimes seemed to be speaking another language. The language of her childhood. But she'll explain what she can.

'And thank you! I would be... exceptionally pleased to teach you one of our languages. There are many, in my sector. The story goes that our very first colony, Kishar, was settled by speakers of many languages. They met together and they all decided that it would be best for children to be taught only one language, to unify the colony. But then it came to agreeing on which language it would be. They couldn't! All the languages had value and they didn't want any to disappear. Hub stations have signage in many languages, and Tradeliners - we come from all over. You'll hear so many languages on a ship. But Sector Standard is our common trade language, the one we usually speak shipside. It's my second language. I could teach you that. Or I could teach you my first, Company Standard. My generation speaks that natively, but my grandparents didn't. It's another trading language, but Company executives didn't go the Kisharin route, they adopted it happily.'