Colin looks back at her, properly looks this time, and then with a lopsided grin responds: "You might have a cousin or two that's related to me?" If he wasn't metis, he would just have said related, but as things are he's met one too many people who were offended by him implying any direct relation, even if said in the most Veil-protecting-speak mode possible.

There's a reason why he lives where he does ...did, among the people he lived with. His relationship with his tribal belonging has been more of the touch and go persuasion for a long time now.

A tribal belonging that is probably obvious, considering he has the clear shine of strong Fianna blood about him.

"And I don't know if I would phrase it like that. I'd rather think of myself as... differently alive than a walking corpse." And yes, he totally stole that wording from a book he read as a kid. "There's enough walking corpses out there as is.

Was."