Tabini was at least canny enough in the differences between atevi and human to know that, gut level, he might think he understood - but chances were … - C. J. Cherryh

Average people didn't analyze what they thought: they thought they thought, and half of it was gut reaction.

"Why?" Lee asked after a moment. "Why do you make such a bargain?"
"For the going," said Ras very softly. "The going itself is our hire. Use us wisely, human sen'en, for we are a sharp sword, to part the Dark for you. So we did for the regul, I have heard, giving them many worlds. And when we have gone far enough, and the tether strains...bid us good-bye, and be wiser that the regul. We are the Face that Looks Outward. We are makers of paths, walkers on the wind; and the going itself...is the hire for which we have always served."
Boaz pressed her lips together, thinking for one cold moment on the dead worlds, about which human councils would have to know, the course of mri homeworlds, destroyed beneath the mri in fear, fears which had to come to former wielders of the Sword: dread that mri might serve others, one's near neighbors. Fear. Fear had killed the worlds between.
To use the mri, one had to play the Game, to cast them from the hand and let them go.

Jane leaned back against the counter and stared at the ceiling. At the traditional location of God, no matter what the planet.

For another — you can move faster than she can. You are as recognizable as she is. And you are willing to take cover. We are not so certain about the dowager.