I match her smile, fighting hard to keep it from turning into a grimace. I don't feel settled. I have a house. I have a routine -- the school, the Council, the dog that Pepper probably should never have left to me. But I steal moments to train every day. I look for a way out of this place every day, and something about that comment is...

Well, unsettling.

"She belonged to a friend," I say. "You know anything about those?"