Huh? No.

She uncurls slightly and lapses out of sending words for a moment: she's confused about why he's reacting that way. Also, kind of despairing in general, flinching away from taking this as hopeful even as she's somewhat calmed by it.

If you're real you're my concern, and if for some reason it was a bad idea for me to remain with you I'd arrange for you to have a dozen more people to be around, since you require that.

Yeah, but, like. How?

I'd tell them to pick a dozen people who seem suited to the project and I'd have them live with you and explore the jungle with you and send back food and plants that might grow near our camp and things like that, so you'd all be helping people.

...might work. She doesn't sound like she believes it.

What do you expect would be the problem?

Nothing specific. I'm not actually being reasonable about this.

I don't abandon people.

He feels very sure of it. He sends that, too.

Thank you.

Also my brothers are working from different information than me and if they conclude you're working for the Enemy I am not sure that'd change what I think. After all, I also think they are hallucinations of the Enemy.

That helps, a little.

I am really starting to hate them. The Enemy. I'm kind of surprised, I wouldn't've guessed I had it in me.

I'm kind of surprised it took this long, if 'he tortures people' was going to do it at all.

Heh. Well, it really is out of character for me. I'm the kind of person who watches someone eat their friend, takes a year to have a breakdown over it, and goes 'well, they were starving, I guess that's forgivable' and walks into their camps to try to talk them out of doing it again. I don't really do anger, never mind hate. But now I do, I guess.

If it deters you from walking into the Enemy's camp to try to talk him out of doing it again, then I think this character change is wholly for the good.

Snort. No, I think I was pretty thoroughly deterred from that right at the beginning. I don't in fact have a death wish, however much it might've looked like it to my tribe.

I admire what you did. It was a good approach, and you won.

She's pleased; she sends that to him.

I mean, I was in a bit of a unique situation, there. Most Speakers learn the language by staking out a tigerfolk village and watching them from afar for a while; I actually lived with them for a summer when I was a kid. It's easily the single stupidest thing I've ever done and I almost died like two or three times over, but what I learned from it turned out to be pretty invaluable; nobody else knew how to approach tigerfolk safely. Probably saved my tribe, too; we were very close to a tigerfolk camp when the trouble started, and I figured out what was going on quickly enough to get the chief to move us before it got too bad.

Good for you. 

Mmhmm.

With the tigerfolk, remembering that they're people even if they're weird and kind of dangerous works really well, and I'm good at it. Here... there are situations where thinking of someone as a person is dangerous, and it's pretty obvious that this is one of those. And hate needs that, is why it's surprising me.

The Enemy really isn't. The Valar don't think like people.

...Valar?

The kind of thing the Enemy is. They're as old as the universe.

...there's more of them? Also, uh?

That evacuation plan suddenly sounds like a much better idea.

Yeah, it might be necessary. But the other ones aren't evil. What were you imagining the Enemy was?