"Well met," Piotr responds in Russian, and for a second he almost looks like he's smiling. Briefly. It's certainly a pleasant surprise to hear it.
Barrayarans don't really believe in women soldiers, even someone as relatively progressive as Piotr, but this woman is built like a brick house and towers over half the soldiers in his camp, himself included. The novelty is not lost on him. That's hard to ignore, even if Piotr shows no signs of intimidation, and her posture marks her as a trained soldier. Piotr looks at her in brusque appraisal.
"I understand you're a soldier where you come from. They allow women in your military, do they?"
He just wants to know if this is standard practice, or if Zarya is some kind of special exception. Well, she's one hell of an exception all on her own.
ass kicking
Barrayarans don't really believe in women soldiers, even someone as relatively progressive as Piotr, but this woman is built like a brick house and towers over half the soldiers in his camp, himself included. The novelty is not lost on him. That's hard to ignore, even if Piotr shows no signs of intimidation, and her posture marks her as a trained soldier. Piotr looks at her in brusque appraisal.
"I understand you're a soldier where you come from. They allow women in your military, do they?"
He just wants to know if this is standard practice, or if Zarya is some kind of special exception. Well, she's one hell of an exception all on her own.