Zihuan arches an eyebrow right back. Touche. "Indeed, I have," he acknowledges. "I prefer discretion, it has constantly vexed the more bloodthirsty of generals under me who would rather race off to destroy. To that end, I am pleased that the general attitude here is not to take up arms and go out to destroy the spirits before they can destroy us. That, I think, is the most foolish of paths."

Riku is his best example of someone who managed to find a clue, despite several trying with various degrees of success. Cao Pi failed due to sarcasm. Lunafreya got only so far with their threats against her. So he keeps glancing at or gesturing toward the young man as he pontificates. "We know they mourn their dead. We know they would like to communicate with us but their efforts can come off wrong. What we don't know, yet, is if there is a hierarchy among them - say, for example, that the ones who live and interact with us in the town are of one sort, kind and eager, but there are others further away who are not at all interested in helping, who would rather kill us all, who have their own motives and don't agree with the friendly ones. We do need to learn more about them, for sure. But in the meantime, to leave ourselves entirely exposed out of some fear of looking too threatening is to invite other factions to come have their way with us." He gives Bruce a cool look. "In my experience, I have also seen innocent people who would like to simply be left alone trampled underfoot by the bigger neighbor next door who would very much not like to leave them alone."