She feels just the vaguest sense of triumph when she extracts an answer out of him, a real answser. That one she doesn't have a hard time believing. She hangs there upside-down, swinging gently, aiming the camera around, but with no real focus. Just looking. Somehow crawling up into this tree had provided some relief to her loneliness, like it was a private space she could make her own, evne though she knows well she can't. She would prefer to find that relief in another person. Byerly is just making it...so difficult.

"A diamond in the rough?" Sonia suggests lightly, though there's a sardonic edge to her voice. She feels like she's pushing back all the time now, defiance for defiance's sake, in ways she never had to at camp. At home. She has so little armor here. All she can do is push, and see what pushes back. "A hidden savant among the barbarians? Yes, I'm sure that ghem-Soren woman found the idea rather quaint."