“Why do you hide everything? I want to see laughter, or tears, not a second sort of mask.” And Baru thought: if I am going to Falcrest to win the secrets of empire, I must be entirely devoted to it, outside and in. I must be able to hide any emotion, pretend to be anyone. If there is rebellion in my heart, a rebellion of huntress mothers with man-killing spears come to find their vanished husbands, well, I must be ready with acid and steel mask. But she answered: “I spend too much time with numbers.”
