'I understand,' says Tayrey softly. 'I could say the same myself, and I know it's been longer for you.' Others might have spoken about the community on the Serena Eterna, but she'd always remained outside it. Part circumstance, part free choice, and part that in her mind becoming a member of that community necessitated first accepting total defeat. Giving up on the Tradelines and believing every word her captor said. The covert version of what the Village had openly and at times brutally demanded. For all her other faults, Lieutenant Tayrey had always remained stronger than that.

'I don't think you lost them,' she goes on. 'If you're anything like me you'll find places where there's rust. Damage. Pain. In freedom, those places can heal. Besides, you helped me today, and I'm not even a believer. That has to count for something.'