"Across The Desert, Like Forever"

Van Rijn partly wins the confidence of Thea who has been a slave of the Shenna all her life. Look how much she gives away without realizing that she is doing it. Asked whether her childhood was happy, she replies:

"'Yes. Yes. My earliest memory is... Isthayan, one of my master's sons, took me exploring... he wanted someone to carry his weapons, even their toddlers have weapons.... We went out of the household, into the ruined part of the huge, old building... we found some machinery in a high tower room, it hadn't rusted much, the sunlight struck through a hole in the roof like white fire, off metal, and I laughed to see it shine.... We could look out, across the desert, like forever -'" (Chapter XIX, pp. 531-532) (For full reference, see here.)

Then she realizes that she is talking too freely. Van Rijn had disingenuously promised not to ask questions that would give him too much information, then unlocked her earliest memories about an entire physical and social environment. The Shenna live like rats in the ruins.