[Oriko cannot quite imagine what a tree alien would look like, but if the trees of earth could be compared, she can imagine what fire might do to one, what it might feel like. She had accepted the sounds of people dying, screaming, long ago - but she remembers most of them.

She's entirely still as he recounts everything about it, just her hands resting on those two heads against her knees.]

You were so near to it... It must have been horrifying. I am sorry that you had to experience, that he could not protect you from that one thing. However...

[She's never been the best at advice. There was a reason she'd been forced to never cry again...what was it?]

Sacrificing yourself to protect something is not something done lightly... He had determined that you were important to him and worth saving.