[Cathaway sighs. She closes the book and raises her face to Lakshmi.]

She is exactly as you are - a Host of the Nest. What any of us were before this place is merely context and perspective to leverage your new goal: to survive, then to thrive. To kill her without cause would be more than pointless. It would be self sabotage.

[She speaks flat and plain, no trace of anything but some tired impatience in the shape of her voice. But the weight of her mind is cold as a coal fallen to ash. Not today. Let's not speak of killing today.]