[OP: "Takes a Little Time"--Amy Grant]

"What is it?" Mira prompted finally.

"Maybe this sounds stupid," Abby said slowly, "but I'm not sure if just talking about something once or twice is enough to undo years and years of thinking this way. I mean, I think I always knew what I was ashamed of, deep, deep down, even if it was a blur. I guess...what if it's not all okay just because we're free?"

"I don't think it'd be normal to be okay immediately," Mira said slowly. "But that's fine. As long as it's starting to heal."

"But I don't blame her for thinking we might ruin everything again..." Abby said. "She thinks it's worse, now that she knows we were once fans of hers... I heard what she said... But I can see it... It would be pretty weird to know that."

"That's not something she can control." Mira waved it off. "We've all seen it's possible with any fans. Honestly, it doesn't even make sense that we'd expect it to be different. Maybe that's just part of the pressure-to-be-perfect thing. No one but her is going to see it that way. Are you really that worried that you'll do something bad again?"

"I guess...I just wonder if we're making this harder for you all by still being around. I mean, this is just how it is, but I still feel...bad," Abby admitted. "The way Celine looked at me earlier, too, like she thought I was going to eat you. That didn't feel great."

Mira remembered that look also.

But this time, it was making her angry. Celine refusing to see that the boys were different...it wasn't fair.

"It's not her call," she said aloud. "It's mine. And there's no way that someone who was so worried about me, Rumi, and Zoey being friends again is going to be trying to divide us or do anything else bad. There's no reason to care anymore, if there ever really was. That's all gone."

Abby was quiet.

"Don't worry about what she thinks," Mira pressed. "Anyway, she's not gonna be here much longer to say it."

"Ha..." Abby laughed weakly. "I came out here to make you feel better, not the other way around. Guess I'm not that good at this."

"What do you mean? You already did that..." Mira reddened a little. "I mean, before?"

"Oh, that. I was just glad you weren't angry anymore."

"That's your 'I'm glad you're not angry' gesture?" With a skeptical look.

"Hey, I didn't want to push my luck too much, standing on a rooftop."

Mira shoved him again.

"You have a cycle, you notice that?" Abby rubbed his arm. "You always hit me before you kiss me."

"Did you think I was gonna kiss you?" Mira raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I came all the way out here and risked my life going on the roof, and you hit me in the arm twice, so I think you owe me after that."

"I didn't ask you to do any of that." Mira feigned being offended.

"Hmm, valid point. But you can't blame me for hoping. You only ever have the nerve when it's dark, you ever notice that?"

"What?"

"Yeah, you're clearly pretty shy about being affectionate, so I had to take the chance."

"So you were counting on it being dark out here, even though you don't like being on the roof, huh?" Mira said. "That's stupid."

"Well, Mira, you try not dating for 20 years and then not doing stupid things about it because you're excited."

Mira flushed again.

"I...can imagine it. I've never actually dated before."

She'd mentioned this already, but Abby had forgotten about it.

"Wait, really? It's not just Rumi?"

"What? Like we have all this time to date?" Mira huffed. "Don't look at me like that. I bet you dated a bunch of girls in the past. At least from what Romance said."

"Hey! He was exaggerating there... It wasn't that many."

"Oh, really...? How many?"

"I don't remember."

"Convenient. It was so many that you don't remember." Mira frowned. "So was this just because you wanted attention?"

"Huh?"

"And that thing you said about Rumi earlier too..."

"Oh, that..." Abby had hoped she'd forgotten about it. "That's just a joke. I swear. She's not my type."

"She'd say otherwise."

"No, she's way too uptight for me. Honestly, she scares me a little. That's why I was happy for Jinu. At least he's into it."

Given his fascination with Mira's violent side, that seemed a little backwards for him to think about Rumi. But maybe it was a bias thing.

"But you still dated a bunch before..." Mira frowned. "This isn't nearly as special to you."

"Okay, back up just a second there." Abby held up his hands. "That's not true at all... Crap, I knew that Romance going off about that would cause problems. He never could shut up about stuff...and Baby also. But I never really liked any of them that much."

"Then why did you?"

"Okay...so maybe I liked the attention a little..." Abby said.

"A little?" Mira was thinking of the ladies who wanted signings of his abs at those fan events.

"A lot...but it wasn't really dating, just hanging out at parties and events sometimes and flirting...and I knew it wasn't going anywhere. That's why I did it. It was cheap attention. Come on, you can't really think it's the same as you?"

"No," Mira admitted, calming down. "I might feel that, but, I don't think you'd try this hard if it was. Sorry...guess I still get a little...insecure about it. And if it being low risk was the appeal, then I wonder about this now...because it's not low risk."

"Oh...is that what's eating you? It's true, I played it safe before. And honestly, Mira...I never took chances that much in the past, I remember it now. That was the problem. That's why we kept sinking lower and lower. Fixing stuff is a risk too. Blame it on being led poorly, or on the industry, but we just tried to stick to the rules. Romance is the one who broke them the most...but I kinda thought he was brave in one way to do it. The rest of us didn't have personal lives--that's why we couldn't stand to lose the group. We had nothing else... If we had, we wouldn't have been that desperate. That's what I mean--I did play it safe, but I think that was a mistake. And I want to change it."

"I see..." Mira said slowly. "So this is taking a risk?"

"You know why I started liking you?" Abby changed tactics.

"Uh...no... I mean, you said but...not why it started..."

"It wasn't because I could tell you thought I was hot, though that's always nice."

Mira blushed. "Hey, it wasn't that obvious."

"It was, but that's nothing. I mean, you know that I was used to that... That's the persona. And, I didn't really mind it, but it was just...par for the course. It's funny to see you deny it, but that wasn't any different than any other girl might have been."

Mira didn't like him saying it was funny, but she put it aside, since she knew it wasn't the real point.

"And honestly, at first I didn't think I'd like you when you guys found us on the streets," Abby went on, hoping this was not a huge mistake to admit. "You were pretty threatening towards the guys, and even with being brain dead, at some level, I knew I didn't like that."

Mira recalled that he'd still been protective of them even then.

And ironically, that was when she'd started to think there was more to him also than being a demon.

"And you were hostile after that even once they had pretty solid evidence that we were human still. It made sense to me that you didn't like us, but that was just how it was. Then, though, you did agree to help. You did save Jinu even though you don't like him. And, I remember now...you did try to thank me for helping you when the big ulgy worm thing attacked."

"I thought you didn't remember doing it," Mira said.

"I remember it now," Abby said. "Did I not mention that?"

"Uh...no..." Mira blinked. 

"Yeah...some of it I wish I didn't remember, but it came back to me gradually... Also the other guys explained it anyway. Well, that was new. That was someone actually caring about what I did, and I think that's where I started to really like you. Kinda grew from there. That, and you're pretty funny."

Mira rolled her eyes. "That's all it took?"

"Call it stupid, but taking a chance like that, even if it was to save myself and the other guys, was still weird for me. Maybe it was because Jinu had done it already. Maybe he proved it could pay off... But even after that, it being the right thing to do was weird. I didn't expect it. You acknowledging it kind of made it feel legit. The others did a little too, but it meant more coming from someone who clearly didn't want to trust us at all. Like, you had to admit it, so it must be true."

"That's a weird reason to like me."

"Not at all. That means you're fair, even when you don't want to be. That takes a lot. You know how many people are actually fair, Mira? Like...hardly any. They hate you for everything--they judge you for stuff without even listening to your perspective. We're all used to that. We're used to people not giving it a second look because they're not willing to admit they could be wrong. That's what's special about you."

Mira felt herself blushing all over again.

Why did he always do that so easily?

[Seriously, Abby's rizz was masterful to turn that conversation around so completely.]

"So the difference between me and other girls is that I'm fair?" she said.

"No, it's that you're real," Abby said, smoothly enough. "Whether you're angry or happy or sad or scared, it's all real. And you wouldn't trust anyone who didn't earn it. That means a lot."

"Most people think my trust issues are not a plus there," Mira said, strangely. "Because that makes it hard for them to feel secure around me."

"But that's just it--because if everyone likes you for superficial reasons, it means you never really know if anyone actually likes you. You really don't leave any room for doubt on that. That's what I like... I'd say I would like you even if you weren't pretty also."

"Wow...is that high praise?" Mira said.

"Well, it is from me. Remember, people just like my abs, no one thinks I have any substance.," Abby said.

[Like most of the fans for the movie.]

"I don't get how you can just say that stuff so easily," Mira said.

"Heh, I don't have any shame over it because no one ever really expects me to be deep," Abby shrugged. "But yeah, please don't make fun of it now because that would be very unusual and upsetting."

"I wouldn't make fun of someone being deep. Just being stupid...but that wasn't stupid." Mira tugged her hair a little. "I...well, you... I didn't mean to sound like I was doubting your sincerity there... I think that conversation with Celine just made me feel off all over again, though that's not really an excuse. I keep doubting people's intentions..."

"You know what? I think I'm okay with it," Abby said, after thinking about it.

"You...are?" Mira hadn't expected that.

"I mean, we all spend a lot of time doubting anyway...and sure, it was a little hurtful at first, but it makes sense to me. It's not personal, right?"

"I... No, it's not personal... I'm just not used to people being fully honest with me," Mira hedged. "I really didn't believe you were being honest with me at first, but...I'm starting to think maybe you are."

"Maybe?"

"Like I do, but I second guess it later. I don't know why I do that. I could blame it on my childhood, but maybe that's not a good excuse either."

"It's a better excuse than Gwi-Ma..." Abby frowned to himself. "So both of us have problems. I think that's okay though, right? Like you said...we're not all perfect. That pressure is not good. We all talked about that before, and it's okay to be scared sometimes, as long as you do the right thing."

"I just don't like it," Mira admitted finally. "This is something that people don't realize about me, but...I don't like being this way." She looked at the ground. "I wish it was easy for me to trust people and to feel close to them. To be normal."

"Is that normal? I feel like it's more normal to feel like you can't get close to people. How many people seem that happy and connected with their friends and family to you?"

"No...but that's why I want to be different than that. But it's not that easy. Movies make it look easy to feel comfortable around people, but in reality you have your issues come up." Mira was frustrated. "Even when I don't want them to... Like back there, I wish I could have been totally supportive of Rumi and Zoey and not let what Celine said get to me either, or what Raven or Morph said. But I lost it. And I wish I didn't get bothered by dumb stuff. I always was like that, never could laugh small stuff off..."

"Well, yeah...but, Mira, I think it's okay to be a little sensitive about some things," Abby said slowly. "Better than not feeling anything at all. And not taking anything seriously. That's...the worst."

Well, he knew what it was like to have no soul.

Mira could see the point.

She suddenly was glad she had feelings... At least she knew she was still human.

She drew a deep breath. "I guess I'm not used to not being blamed for this. It's trippy."

"I'm not used to anyone listening to what I have to say like it matters, so back at you."

"I think your opinion matters," Mira said, uncomfortably, since it was embarrassing still to say things like that.

But it was cute, seeing her try.

"Well, shoot, now I really want to kiss you," Abby teased.

Mira glanced up. "After all that, you still want to kiss me?"

"We were still being serious?"

"I thought so."

"Well...okay. I mean, I guess if you still need to talk, that's fine too."

"I think the moment is over," Mira said wryly.

But before Abby could wonder if that was a bad sign, she shrugged. "Might as well just kiss me."

"Really?"

"I mean, I'm out of things to talk about anyway." Mira suddenly felt tired of all the weightiness of it.

Mira was at that point that people get to where they realize they can't really do anything about it, and while she was a chronic over-thinker, even she had to tap out then.

[I can relate. The older I get, the sooner the moment comes. Which is a good thing.]

"Okay then." Abby took the invitation and kissed her.

Mira was starting to get used to this. She felt less unsure of herself than before.

"So, this is the only real relationship you've ever had?" she interrupted him. "And it's only a few days old?"

"Mira, I think knowing you for even one day would be more reality than knowing some people for 10 years would be," Abby said.

That was a very truthful statement, even if it was clearly supposed to be flattering.

"Do you ever run outta those lines?" Mira wondered.

"I mean, not with you around to inspire more for them..."

"Oh my gosh, just shut up!" Mira kissed him again.

[They always end up doing this sooner or later.

But I believe it, since they're both people who prefer actions over words anyway.

And this is my favorite ship in the story, though I like the other two also, so maybe I'm a little biased towards writing their scenes, but more Zoestry will be coming soon, and Rujinu. We're getting to the end of the book here, and I don't want anyone to feel stiffed on the shipping fodder.]

* * *

Romance and Baby thought Celine would have left then. They both snuck back into the living room to get food from the kitchen.

But she had not left.

She and Raven were still sitting there, though at some point, Raven had gotten instant ramen.

(Which the girls wouldn't be happy about, but Raven was never one to care about that.)

Celine was eating it also, perhaps because she had no other options for a meal at the moment.

Baby had missed the entire "comforting Zoey" conversation, so he was more surprised than Romance, but Romance still stared.

Celine looked at them and narrowed her eyes.

Raven glanced up. "Oh, there you are. I thought you'd all left the building."

"Uh...no..." Romance said.

"Why is she still here?" Baby asked rudely.

Celine glared at him.

"She wanted to know what we've been doing with you all since we found you," Raven said. "The part the Hunters didn't tell her. The training, the...other stuff."

She didn't mention that Celine had also grilled her on if the girls were romantically involved with the guys or not.

Raven had dodged the questions as being not really her place to say, but Celine probably knew that meant it was true.

Morph had left the room at some point, both to see if the others were okay and because he hated answering these types of questions and was at his limit of serious moments for the day.

It had taken a while anyway for Celine to recover from the emotional conversation, and Morph has finally been released from it only after she'd started to change the subject.

Raven had lost track of time but supposed it must have been over an hour since he's gone, and all the younger people clearly thought Celine was not here anymore.

This wouldn't be any good if they came charging in here again and repeated the same incident as before.

She took out her phone and group messaged them all, but only Rumi even answered it.

While she was doing this, Romance was waiting for her to explain, and since she didn't, he edged into the kitchen.

Baby kept scowling at Celine, and when Raven looked up, he said, "So why didn't you make her leave?"

"Oh, that," Raven said. "Well, we have an idea."

"Whatever it is, I already don't like it," Baby said.

"I don't like it either," Celine said icily. "But for different reasons, I imagine."

"No, the same reasons," Raven said flatly. "Morph and I suggested that Celine remain here for a day or two to observe you all."

They heard a dish drop in the kitchen, and then Romance appeared, with a terrified look. "Observe us?" 

"There was no way to convince her that you're all harmless except for her to see for herself if she can catch you doing anything suspicious," Raven said. "And, I suppose, rationally, that's really the only way to know anything. Morph suggested it."

Morph had suggested it to get her to calm down, since it seemed like it was the only way to settle the debate about the boys being dangerous.

Celine being as type A as Rumi, if not more so, she was only going to feel better if she actively did something about her concerns.

"Um, Raven, can we talk about this for a moment?" Romance asked.

"Fine." Raven knew it was better to listen to him in private than let him lose it front of Celine.

She got up, taking her ramen with her, and went into the kitchen.

Baby eyed Celine. "So you'll be here to make sure we don't kill them in their sleep."

"You could say that." Celine glared at him some more.

Baby returned it just as hostilely. "I think you're the one who'd be worried about that."

Celine's glare intensified. "What?"

"If you don't trust us so much, why would you trust us not to kill you if you're here, and we really don't want to blow our cover?" Baby said. "We could make it look like an accident, right? If we were trying to take the girls in, why not just remove the only person who still is telling them we're not on their side?"

"Are you threatening me?" Celine said.

"Am I?" Baby said.

Raven reappeared, grabbed him by his ear, and yanked him into the kitchen after her.

"I heard that, you idiot," she said. "Are you mad? She will kill you."

"I just said what she was thinking already." Baby rubbed his ear.

"You will not threaten her, and if you can't be civil, you'll be silent," Raven warned him. "Or I will deal with you personally."

"Raven, you're not one for diplomacy," Romance said, now that he could, since he hadn't gotten far before Raven left to grab Baby again. "I can't believe you'd suggest this. It's insane. She hates us. She won't hate us less if she lives with us. Face it, we're...strange. Gwi-Ma's addled our personalities so much with the memory loss and the...experience of being his slaves, that we can't act normal. She'll never be convinced."

"That was the only way to get her off our backs," Raven insisted. "She wasn't going to drop it. We argued with her for ages after you all left. I'm sure you were eavesdropping the whole time anyway. You heard it."

"We left after the girls did, so not all of it," Romance said. "But...I thought she was upset after the story she told. Why would she stay around here?"

"I'm assuming she knows it's pointless if she runs again," Raven said, more abstractly. "I guess she's tired of that. She can't live in her little isolated mansion forever and ignore this. The girls are the only meaning in her life she has left. She was never going to really stay away forever--that was an empty threat. If she sees this in person, at least she can't say anymore that she doesn't know what's going on here. If she doesn't change her mind, she at least finally will have to shut up about it."

"Not much hope of that," Romance said. "She'll hurt us. Why would you do this?"

"I really only agreed to it because I thought it was what Shine and Wally would do." Raven shrugged. "I prefer to keep danger as far from myself as possible, but she's not much of a threat to me, after all."

"And us? Don't you care about our peace of mind?" Romance said. "We just got back. We have to deal with Gwi-Ma and the saja guy he's summoning to fight us with, and you want to add the angry ex-hunter to the mix?"

"And I hate her," Baby said.

"What right do you have to hate her?" Raven looked at him. "Most of what she's worried about was valid not three weeks ago. Not that different from what the girls thought, either."

"At least they considered  if it was incorrect," Baby said. "She's not considering it. She's only here to prove you're wrong and she's right."

"But how did you even get that far?" Romance finally realized this was strange. "She didn't trust you either."

"Apparently, the girls' story convinced her we're not demons," Raven said. "Small progress. And she seems to have warmed up to us, as much as she ever would to anyone. But I'm not doing it to be her friend. I just want peace. The sooner we have that, the sooner the Honmoon can be stronger. Rumi's situation is tied to this. It's crucial to deal with it. Anyway, she wanted to know our plan to make all this better, and we didn't tell her because the Hunters should be the ones to do that, but we know she won't like it. What if she tries to sabotage you all? Isn't it better to have her here, where we know what she's doing as well?"

Pause.

"Fine," Baby said. "For that reason, maybe. I mean, I guess we don't know who she could contact if we make her too angry, but I'm not gonna be nice to her."

"You're not nice to anyone. We'd never know the difference," Raven said.

"If it's safer, then fine, but I'm staying away from her," Romance said.

"Frankly, you're not the ones she's worried the most about anyway," Raven muttered. "The real concern is the others."

* * *

And it certainly was, because when all of them finally saw Raven's message and all came to the level below, her and morph's level, to ask her what happened, they were not pleased.

Morph was there and at least able to back her up, but it wasn't easier to hear from him.

"You invited her to stay here!?" Rumi exploded, when she grasped what they were saying. "Why? That's the worst idea."

"She never stays here. Even when she dropped in she never stayed overnight," Zoey said. "She makes us too nervous."

"You know, this is giving me a picture of your relationship with her even before you knew she lied to you," Morph said. "Didn't you guys like her at all?"

"Well, we respected her, but she kept us at a distance," Mira said. "I assumed that we weren't as close to her as Rumi, since we weren't raised by her, but now I see there were other reasons for it. And I don't want her staying here. We literally just got back from the other world. We have to get ready for the event we're setting up to trap the saja Gwi-Ma is using.. Wwe can't deal with Celine too." She was getting stressed all over again.

And she'd seemed to be feeling better when she came in.

Abby was also quickly losing his emotional high.

"I don't know about this," he said. "Won't she...hurt us?"

"About that," Morph said. "I made her swear not to do that without warning us first. It took a lot to convince her to do that." He winced. This was making his head hurt. "But finally she did. For her, that's pretty magnanimous, you have to admit."

"I am surprised she agreed at all," Zoey said. "She still thinks they're demons."

"She thinks they're human, maybe," Raven said. "But she doesn't think they're worthy of forgiveness. You have a few days at most to change her mind, she won't stay longer than that, for all our sakes. But full transparency was the only way she could be convinced that we wouldn't be hiding something from her. It's amusing, because we easily could still hide things from her, if we were any good, but, she seemed to be somewhat naive also. All you hunters are too used to not being tricked."

"And this is a good thing?" Mira said. "What if she attacks?"

"She said she won't " Morph said. "She's pretty set in her own mind, so if she decides things aren't fishy here, she'll be sure. And it's the only way, since she wasn't listening to you. Teachers don't always care what their students think. That's just how it is. But if she thinks it's her idea, then she might change her mind."

"That's actually impressively manipulative," Baby said. "But the idea itself is stupid. She won't change her mind."

"I don't think she will," Romance agreed. "Some people never change."

"That's just what she'd say about you all," Morph said. "You see how this goes both ways? You could try to be better than her. Show her the grace she won't show you. Didn't you all receive enough of it to get to this point? Why won't you give her the chance?"

Silence.

Well, now they felt guilty.

"Okay, fine," Abby said. "If you put it that way, I guess she'll have to."

"Before you say that," Romance said, "you realize she's going to hate you more than us. Well, not just you. You, Jinu, and Mystery."

"Me?" Mystery winced.

"Yes, because she thinks you're in a relationship with the Hunters," Romance said. "Which...you are. So...once she knows that's true, she's going to want to murder you. After that story she told you, I can see why she'd be sure it's a bad idea."

"So we change her mind," Zoey said. "I mean...maybe she could...see how sweet they can be. Who could hate Mystery if they really knew him?"

"But who really knows him that well?" Romance said. "Even we have a hard time reading him sometimes, no offense--" To Mystery. "If she's bent on seeing the negative, I think she'll think he's suspicious."

"Or she might realize that he's not a threat," Morph said. "She might not be as bad as you think. Remember, she did at least raise Rumi. That's more open-minded than she could have been."

"Yeah...I mean, that's true," Rumi admitted. "More than the other hunter was...but what if that was as far as she was willing to go? She could think that I'm the exception, not the rule."

"Then convince her they are the exception also and not the rule," Morph said. "You all think it was fate, in a way, that it was the 5 of you and not any other sajas."

"If she knew that we were trying to find other sajas and help them, she'd still hate that," Rumi said.

"One thing at a time," Morph said. "Look...what else can we try? Talking to her hasn't worked. No matter how much proof you show her, she can't let go of it. But when you get to know someone as a person, that's what changes your mind. It's happened to me and to Raven."

"That's really the only reason I was in the X-men at all," Raven said. "Familiarity breeds contempt but also comfort."

"Well, now you do sound like Shine," Jinu said. "And I do think she and Wally would approve, but I think we should write to them first. What if there's a danger to it we can't see?"

"We wouldn't get an answer right away," Raven said. "They'd expect us to make decisions for ourselves. We're not babies. With one exception perhaps." With a nod at Baby. "But I suppose if you want to outvote this, it's your choice."

"It's your house," Morph said. "So...if you don't want her here, then fine. We told her we'd ask you first anyway. That's why she's still waiting."

The girls all exchanged looks.

"Before we vote," Rumi said, "Jinu...would you really be okay with this? She basically said you should still be dead."

"I don't love that," Jinu said. "But...I know this has been stressing you out a lot, and you want to settle things with her. Maybe this is the only way to do it. I think if she's willing to try this, if there's any chance it might soften her a little towards us, then you should do it. Anyway, at least we'd know what she's doing too then."

He's thought the same thing as Raven, apparently.

"Mystery?" Zoey looked at him. "She scares you, right? We don't have to do this."

"I don't want to stand in everyone else's way if this is the right thing," Mystery said.

"Aw..." Zoey said.

"Yeah, Jinu, that's really unselfish." Rumi was impressed also. "That's so sweet."

Jinu thought he was being logical, not unselfish, but he'd yet to realize that those often were the same things in the long run. 

Still, he was quite touched by Rumi saying it and smiled warmly.

Mira glanced at Abby. "Well? You said before, but...if she's going to hate you especially, are you sure you want to deal with that?"

"Do you?" Abby hadn't missed that Mira was not a fan of Celine being involved anymore.

"Not really," Mira said but glanced at Rumi and Zoey and sighed. "Still...if it would matter more to you, then I guess I won't stop it. I'll just avoid her if I want to."

Not quite the right attitude, but for Mira this was compromise.

"Then same," Abby said. 

"You don't have a personal opinion on this?" Baby said. "You're doing whatever she says."

"It's not like that," Abby said, glaring at him. "It's called being considerate, Baby. Try it sometime. But, no, I mean, she's going to hate me either way. If it's just because she doesn't want me to date Mira, that's the least of my problems. But did you tell her why we made our deals?"

"No, we didn't think we should," Rumi said.

"I think you should tell it," Morph agreed.

"If she knew that, she'd think we were even more disappointing than she already does," Abby said.

"She will," Mystery said. "She hates me already."

"I know she's harsh," Rumi said. "But Celine isn't really...a cruel person, in general. She just has no pity for demons. I think if we convinced her you all really, truly weren't like that anymore, and that your minds aren't infected by Gwi-Ma now, she might let that go."

"She doesn't really seem so bad, to me," Morph said, thoughtfully. "She's hard on you all, but this is her whole life, and she had a lot of tragedy over it. She paid everything for the hunters' goal. She never had a life of her own...so I can see why she's very touchy about it. But maybe she could be more understanding. Like Rumi is saying...the trick is to get her to see anything outside of that."

"You're making her your project?" Mira said.

Awkward pause.