"Sometimes," she said, slowly. "People are afraid of that which they can't understand. What doesn't look or sound like them. And then...sometimes, they make up stories to villainize people who are different. I don't know why. Maybe so they're not as afraid."

It wasn't that she was trying to be delicate. Ariadne was always delicate.

It was more that...she really didn't understand why people had such prejudice against Alastrians. She'd never understood. She just knew...that it was.

Except here. Here, things were different. Better.