"[color=ffe63d]I think—[/color]"

And here Quinn hesitated.

Because it [i]had[/i] felt like she'd done something wrong, and there was a sharp and painful edge to the memory of that feeling. It had been brief, so brief, because Besca had taken her aside and told her that what she'd done [i]wasn't[/i] wrong. That she'd done the right thing. She kept combing what had happened before she slept, picking and choosing among the words that Besca and Dahlia had scattered through her mind.

"[color=ffe63d]Because...[/color]" How would she put this? How could she explain it in a way that [color=black]Quinnlash[/color] would understand? How could she explain it at [i]all,[/i] put any of it into words? Did she even [i]know[/i] what she wanted to explain?

"[color=ffe63d]...Because the world is full of [i]takers,[/i] [color=black]Quinnlash.[/color] They just want to take and take and take. We're starting to realize that, I think. It's wearing on us after only a little while. And it's worn on them for so much longer. So they think [i]everyone[/i] is one.[/color]" Another hesitation while she tried again to reorder her thoughts. As she did so, a thought floated out, a half-remembered phrase from a gentle man's voice. She sighed mournfully."[color=ffe63d]But...[/color]"

"[color=ffe63d]...But the window goes both ways, [color=black]Quinnlash.[/color][/color]"

"[color=ffe63d]They thought that Roaki was a [i]taker[/i], just like you did, because that's all they knew. But because I didn't kill her, they saw that she wasn't, and changed their minds. And I...I think maybe that's why people make us feel like we did something wrong?[/color]"

She looked up into the sky, the perpetual light just before dawn. "[color=ffe63d]I don't know. Not really. But...it's something I should think about.[/color]"

She reached out and rested her hand carefully on [color=black]Quinnlash's[/color] narrow shoulder. "[color=ffe63d]So...thank you. Really.[/color]"