The voice makes her flinch, turning into the wall she rested her head on. A voice that was too close, and gingerly, her eyes only half opened, a thin gaze that was turned down. More because that was all she could manage, rather than what she would do by herself. It let her see - feet. Helpful, and her mouth pulls a little for it. Someone standing in front of her, not able to know anything else apart from the warm voice that offered a kindness she did not expect.

She had been left alone aside from the jostling of the others, the hazing that inevitably went into a new recruit to the ranks. Shoving, almost tripping her, putting things just out of her limited sight. Ordering her to do things that were harder for her present state. One or two had been kinder. Mercy was that her weapons had been taken from her that she didn't respond in the way that apparently came easier.

But as her sharp reaction settled, she let out her breath, turning back that little. Desperate, looking for something to understand it all. The only respite she had found was pressing her face into the cool walls to take the heat off. Hard as it was not to grind herself into it. Itch away the markings. Turn her face into a bloodied mess. Turn those beautiful, fine markings, into stains between scratches.

Instead, she swallows, driving that need, her fingers curling in tightly against her side. No, Lakshmi. "Shouldn't I endure it? To show my devotion?"

It's flat, hardly meant. That she is unhappy, couldn't be more obvious.