By many standards in Baedal, Benevenuta would be considered xenian. It's not something that she's come to think of herself as; she thinks of herself as something both separate from humanity and deeply, meaningfully connected to it. She has always known the divide between mortal and immortal and rarely thought of it in terms of species. She thinks of it in terms of purpose, of responsibility, of guardianship even--

She loves humanity, she rises to her obligation to it, but she is not beholden to the individual. The individual, in fact, is where she's always had trouble. Relating to them on their own terms is something she's tried to do and something that has eluded her for centuries; their experience and expectations are too unlike her own. She's never known the urgency of a life with an endgame in sight.

That's what it means. Her proud distance, here, the glimpses of just how arrogantly willful she truly is down at bone - this is what it means.

But she says: “It means that I am older than I appear,” in the tone of someone who thinks he should be grateful for conceding even that much. “And that I know what I'm doing. And that I would be very grateful if you would get the crystal power-source down from the cupboard above me here for my blender.”

Well, since he's standing right there, being taller than she is.