She prayed for peace? It was an alien idea to the older man who'd spent his life at war; to think that there could be a day without the struggle, that serenity could touch down and stay. "We share hopes, even if I do not pray on them," Wu said after a moment, nodding slightly. "The idea that this place could be real, that any of us could return to the world from it? Some moments, I do not believe it possible, and in others I hope it is, if only for the sake of those like you." She deserved better for her kindness and resolve, she deserved more than imprisonment for doing what Wu saw as a necessity to the man who'd attacked her.
"I was going to die in prison," he went on after a moment, surprising himself with the admission. "If not by another inmate, then by time. Slowly, in days and weeks that compound to years. And I was prepared for it. But some of us here have the right to want more, to be given freedom and whatever life remains in the world beyond these walls." Carmel, Becka, even Reece; they weren't like him. This place was the chance they needed. "I hope your prayers are answered," he finished with a slight nod, wrapping both hands around his mug as Wu looked down into its' surface, watching his faint reflection ripple and distort.