[Kuja appreciates polite words, so it pleases her to hear them, and she smiles.] Your own words do you honor.

It may be a form of comfort to know that others share certain traits. [At the same time, it was a reminder of what she had done, and what she will never be able to do. Lessons learned too late.] Yet those shared traits can make the differences stand out all the more. People can be so dissimilar, strikingly so. [Even the other constructs, they were not like her.] Those differences can lead to tragedy, and perhaps they should not be masked by sentiments we'd like to hear about how we are alike. [Kuja knows the woman does not mean it as a platitude, but it touches a nerve.]

I do wonder as well. [Her voice sharpens.] I do not look kindly upon being forced into any action, and I will not hesitate to retaliate if this Queen should use direct or constraining methods. [Kuja has not forgotten her claim of being a poet, but she does not see how it necessarily conflicts with her promise of retaliation.]

That is more or less the normal way among the nobility of my world, although there are exceptions, and of course much goes on that is neither known nor sanctioned by the common crowd. As it always does.