Fatima didn't offer sympathies for his mother. She hated it when people did it to her, so she wasn't going to do it to someone else. Really, what could you say? 'I'm sorry?' It was nice, sure. But it didn't make anything better.

She let out a loud, abrupt laugh. It was the last thing that came to her mind when she thought of her family. Cheerfulness. No. The Merali girls were not a happy bunch. They were a great and powerful line. An honorable line. An important line.

But also a miserable one.

"Would you believe me if I said that we've saved the world?"