She tilts her head. "And if you are wrong," Merwen says, a hint of challenge coming into her voice, "if they can be convinced to listen but you assume they cannot, then you will carry the weight of their souls upon your own. It is not possible to act and not be acted upon in return."

This... might not be the sort of argument she wants to throw herself into so quickly, but it's also the sort of argument she almost has to.

"Their inhumanity might make their intelligence harder to see, and perhaps for the same reason they cannot see ours. We must try. At least, I will try, if I can."