Sonia's chest feels a little tight. She clutches her hands together. A fierce, burning hope in her chest, like acid in the back of her throat, just because she wants it so badly. She wants so, so badly to just make this whole war disappear. She's still not sure if she should believe him. It isn't impossible -- almost all the other outsiders were from different worlds, the idea of there being some other version of Barrayar out there... She bites her lips together, holding Byerly's gaze, her own painfully hopeful.

"How do you know?" She's almost whispering now. No, it's seeming less and less utterly farfetched, but the idea makes her reel. "How do you know it'll be he same here?"