He pauses too and pats the top of her head, as if she were a puppy that was learning its first tricks. He'd seen so many cadets come and go that it was natural he'd develop such a kindly but faintly patronizing attitude.

"Perhaps it might tell you about your ancestors, quiaff? Actually you have never told me how your kind reproduces at all."

No cultural taboo on this kindof thing. For ordinary non-clanners he remembers, but he figures it might not be in her culture either.