"My life held much hardship, pain, and darkness," Teja says. "You have never seen me at my worst; I had already been much lightened-up by those I had met in Milliways, when you came there."

Pause.

"No; I knew that there would be no future to build here, and only a few years of desperate war left until my people were swept off these lands forever; so I rather spent my rare spare time at my harp, or at my anvil."