"I'd like to think they simply needed to adjust, but the reaction was so negative, I don't see them adapting. And some of it was so maliciously ignorant..." He stops, shaking his head, and sighing as if exhausted by the very thought of it.

"Shall I tell you what lay at the core of why I sought to lay aside Sariel and become someone else?" he says, looking to her, leaving the option open.