No problem, kaja" Lara nodded with exaggerated obeisance. "You may lead, so long as we may follow. - David Weber

Narration: Perhaps his love for her made him less than impartial, but he also knew how deeply she'd been hurt and chided her for judging herself so much more harshly than she would have judged someone else...

Narration: But what kept them on their feet when there was no sane reason for hope were the bonds between them, loyalty to one another, the knowledge that others depended on them even as they depended on those others. And sometimes, all too rarely, it came down to a single person it was simply unthinkable to fail. Someone they knew would never quit on them, never leave them in the lurch.

W.E.B. Du Havel: God, I love the "fine morality" of the wealthy and powerful. You'll spill tears over your own, in a heartbeat. And then never even look twice at people below you, whose very lives are ground under every day, day after day, year after year.