Merwen shakes her head. "You are no more a bad person than I am," she says, firmly, with the weight of conviction behind her words. "I think -- and there are those of my sisters who would very hastily disagree with me -- I think that this is something human, something we all share. Some embrace it, and some don't."

Softer, she adds, "I don't mean to share judgement with you. I only know what I have seen and lived through, and I know that violence is a flame that consumes everything it touches, including those who wield it, no matter how pure their aim, and you seem to know it already, as young as you are. There is wisdom in that.