She might be more of a bleeding heart ( or rather, she is, isn't she? An utter joke to say she's not. She's still here, fighting for the Barrayaran's wasn't she? ) But she lived in slums, in hell where people die constantly for crossing the wrong street on the wrong night. Heard that statement too many times for the impoverished and the forgotten. Coughing up their black lungs after they've buried their tenth child. Where at least it was better to be dead than still living in nightmares they couldn't escape -

- their last wishes were simple, when it came to it. "I can." Her eyes are down, her voice quiet. Doesn't feel herself grip into material tightly until she's doing it, and she forces her fingers apart like clamps.