I did. I'm better off like this, even if I miss it, sometimes. I didn't want to join the enfeebled and injured under the Tamassrans care, useless to everyone.

[He scratches at his stubble a bit, nodding.]

You're definitely better off not knowing the details. They don't put soldiers on Seheron for more than a year or two. It wears you down to the bone to live through the horrors there.

[A pause, and Taas sighs slightly. She had wise parents, at least.]

...yeah, I lipread everything, my hearing is non-existent. Sometimes I have to guess with the context.