I know.

[ She says it simply.

Oh, how she knows it. ]

I am Praesi, dear, and of the High Blood at that. We know nothing of closeness, allies, or friends. My mother would not even marry my father and used him as a tool to have me, but little more than that. I am bred to be superior to everyone who passes beneath me. I was made to be the best. To never want or need to have allies. To be able to throw away someone, simply because they were no longer convenient.

[ The girl that Akua had befriended, as a girl, had been chosen specifically that she would be killed by her eventually. There had been no room for such things for a Sahelian. ]

I do not say this to make you feel inferior, or to speak of my misfortune.

[ Her hand does not move. ]

I say this, because I know what it is, to have to learn that it is not the way. That there is a different way. That wanting friends does not make you weak. To lean on them does not make you lesser. That to stand apart is a path of ruin, that it will wound you and hurt you so deeply, that you would become a shell of who you wanted to be.

[ Her smile is sad, as she tipped her head up, to look her in the eye. ]

Don't wait until it's too late, like I did, Hayame.