“You can be both,” ey said, laughing. “Even skunks can contain multitudes.”
She beamed proudly.
“Different subject. Did Dear tell you about the other part of Codrin’s decision? About Sorina?”
-“It did, yeah. What did Codrin have to say about her?”
+“It did, yes. What did Codrin have to say about her?”
“Eir letter read like someone struggling not to cry,” ey said. “Ey sounded crushed. From the sounds of it, they were together only ten minutes and ey still felt like ey lost a good friend.”
“That, and knowing some version of emself would never see her partners again. I think there needs to be a new word for the empathy one has for someone who is oneself and yet not,” May said, nodding. “It is the same feeling I have for True Name. Ey is not leaving eir partners behind, and yet ey feels that empathy with Sorina, who is. I am not struggling with the same problems that True Name is, and yet I am not so different from her that I cannot share in some of that understanding.”
“I’ll have to start digging through etymologies for a good one.”
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@The skunk grinned, dotting her nose to eirs. “I do not see how they could not, my dear. Is that not what exploration is? Do we not both dream?”