She could ask a thousand questions just for that alone. But it is not the same, but it is just as much. "I use both, and there will never be a better weapon in close quarters than a blade. That-" she lifts her hand to gesture. "-proves that."

As for the next, to that she laughs, endlessly warm, oh yes. "Since I was a child, yes. When I was married, we kept, oh - cattle of course, as was our duty to protect them. But our stables had some of the finest horses in all of Bundelkhand, though my husbands pride and joy was our elephants. We also kept deer, dogs, cats, a great many of others, like they were our children."

Each word is effused with warmth, a joyousness. A practical zoo they had kept, left to wonder around free, and cared for. The laws of Asoka that were kept still.