"No, YOU'RE missing the point." Elara's voice stayed level, but something cold entered it. "You gave me a new life. Fine. I didn't ask for it, but I'm using it. You want me to 'live like a normal human'? I'm not normal. I will never BE normal. I don't process emotions. I don't form attachments the way you apparently expect. I analyze, I calculate, I optimize. That's how I survived twenty-nine years in a cutthroat industry. That's how I'm surviving palace politics in a world where my own sisters want me dead. And you're complaining that I'm not doing it with enough 'feelings'?"
"'I'm complaining that you're acting like a MONK!'" The voice rose. "'You don't eat unless someone forces you. You don't sleep unless you collapse. You work yourself to exhaustion and then keep working. You treat your own body like it's expendable equipment instead of the GIFT I GAVE YOU!'"
