"We had never seen human males before. I recall the sisters not even being sure they were human. On Shora, there are only females. Except only Spinel, perhaps, but he was born on Valedon and became one of us."

Ah, Spinel, she misses him already. But she takes what he's saying, and she thinks hard, pausing for a moment while she fidgets with her hands, snapping the webbing between her fingers. This is a very, very new concept for her. "You see sex as different from gender," Merwen says, attempting to clarify. "And if one who is born female says they are male, then your people accept that, and refer to him as such? Presumably the reverse, as well?"

She lifts her head to look at him, and shakes her head, very slightly. "I don't understand this at all," she admits. "I've never heard of such a thing. What is gender if not the sex of the body? Is it a matter of mind, or the soul?"