"I wish I could try," Sonia says wistfully, sighing, some of the bleakness bleeding away, but it still leaves her looking tired and disheartened. "It sounds like it must feel very..." Empowering? She can't quite bring herself to say that out loud. "Very interesting."

She blinks at moon cycle. What a charmingly almost-Barrayaran way to put it. But this time when she smiles, it isn't so bleak, and seems as though Vex is finally starting to tease a little more conversation out of Sonia.

"You mean your period? Oh, yes, birth control is readily available here, if you just ask a doctor. Not teas, but pills, or injections -- I have a contraceptive implant myself. On the planet where I was born, everyone is given one as soon as they enter puberty."