Istas moved through the mace of crystal prisons with growing wariness. Imprisonment was a slightly baffling concept to Istas - to kill your prey or your enemy was only natural. To keep them locked up where not only were you not only had to go to the effort of feeding and housing them, but weren't even getting and extra meal yourself out of the deal seemed frankly bizarre. But Istas knew that imprisonment was the civilised way, and so since she liked civilisation very much she accepted it.

But this...to keep those who were your enemy encased in crystal, all so that they might live to see the very thing that they fought to prevent...there was only one word for it. It was cruelty, pure and simple. To destroy them entirely would have been more respectful.

Istas had run from cruelty. She did not wish to return to it. But what choice did she have?

"Life is not earned," she said. She could not speak of her unease, of her wish to flee this place. To do so would be to show weakness, to invite danger. "You have it, until such time when you do not. Nothing more, nothing less."