"We have surviving." Lucy said quietly. "Hope needs to balanced. We need to be realistic and practical. Or it leads to disappointment or worse, being unaware of potential danger." She knew that letting her guard down could get her killed. On the other hand, she'd seen the strongest and most prepared people fall victim to the man too. It made hope seem impossible.
His touch in her mind went unnoticed. She hadn't learned to use or even sense telepathy outside of the bond. She gave a nod when he said she was sorry and kept eating. She'd said it herself to her friends many times over the years when they'd lost loved ones. It was all they could say and it never felt like it was enough.
"I'm colder than other people. I noticed that the first time the man gave us a heat wave. I still felt the heat, but not as much as the rest. The amulet keeps me from getting too cold." She touched the amulet as she spoke. It was the only concrete proof she had of being related to her mother. "I can transport myself fast enough to get out of the way of an immediate danger, but not across long distances." It was the word she used instead of winnow or teleport, having been raised without her parents around. She stepped back from the counter, not wanting to knock anything over. She took the glamour off her wings to make them visible and unfurled them for a moment. "They're not useful for anything." She murmured and made them invisible again.
"What about you?" She asked, having always been curious about her parents. She'd had ideas of what she had inherited from which parent, what she didn't inherit it all, etc, based on what she'd been told by people who knew them. It would be interesting to see if this man's stories matched what she'd heard over the years.