"Have you seen many such situations?" Raine asked, genuinely curious. He spoke of it like a matter of course, and with the years he had lived it might well be. At least religion hadn't been mixed up in the local mess so far as she could tell.

His last statement sparked a short, bright peal of laughter from her. "Yes-- though even if it was impossible, I suspect that wouldn't stop many of the people here." She had seen what happened when sufficiently determined people decided that 'impossible' was more of a suggestion, and several of the other foreigners she'd met she had no doubt would push on regardless.