It's... kinder than she would have expected. It's kinder than she's experienced. But it also keeps them comfortable and cooperative. And she's seen that, before.

"I'd like to see this game," Merwen says. "Soldat... this other Merwen you knew, did she share much about her time as a Valan prisoner?"

It's an abrupt shift in topic, but it follows logically for her, and the idea that a stranger might know of something she hardly speaks about at all, to anyone, to her family, is a little worrying.