Connor smiled slightly, ducking his head and taking the plates. As had been evidenced earlier, he coped poorly with compliments. He never knew how to respond because he had had them so infrequently in his life.

"My mother was an amazing woman. She fought the Templars, slavers. so even managed to form an alliance of peoples for a short time to combat the soldiers who were attacking our peoples. Oiá:ner, my clan mother, despaired at Ista's insistence that we could no longer afford to not be involved and simply ignore the colonists."

He goes quiet suddenly, the brief lightness in his voice darkening. "And now I know she was right. Our future is... bleak."