"It took awhile for my own world to learn that, and I won't lie - some people still don't deal with it well," he acknowledged. "But for the most part, it's a simple reality that there is much, much more out there beyond human. It seems rather pointless to do something like discriminate based on something like race. It's who you are as a person that counts, in my opinion."

He blinked and looked at Inessa and looked dow with a sheepish smile.

"Sorry, I was preaching there for just a moment, wasn't I?"