"It's a reality," he said in turn, not unkindly. "You can regret the need for fighting, but please don't regret our need to fight for you, or anyone else we care about. The worlds aren't kind."

None of them, because kindness is a social condition, not a force of nature. Nature itself is beyond concepts of cruelty or kindness in his experience, as one strongly tied into and linked to elements himself.

"It's up to us to be the kindness and fairness and justice we can be for each other."