"I'm not offended, dear-heart," Amberdrake chuckles very faintly at that, "I am a kestra'chern, remember? I've dealt with quite a lot of other people's traumas over the years."

It's a very good thing that Sanzo's involved with a therapist, if he's going to be involved with anyone at all.

"And remember when we first met, how I didn't want my skin exposed?" Although Hadanalith was the most recent offense, and in a much more catastrophic way (he'd damn near started a new war)...

Well, Hadanalith hadn't wanted Drake. Except maybe to skin him, because torture was fun.

But those men in Ma'ar's army, all those checkpoints... they'd valued Drake's deep Kaled'a'in skin and his pretty Kaled'a'in eyes. It was why he'd kept that damn whip-scar for so long, to diminish his own appearance the little bit that he could.

"Well, I understand, anyway," Drake said instead of going into any of that. He offered a small squeeze of the arm across Sanzo's shoulders, despite the presence of that damned sutra, and then also offered a topic change, "...You're not planning to stow that away and never try it, are you? I'd hate to end up with a stockpile of it and then find out you hate it."