[ Silence reigns for a short while. Emet-Selch knows he certainly doesn't have to care about any of the people trapped here with him. The last thing he wants to do is sympathise when he has a duty yet to fulfil back home which involves killing off rather a lot of mortals. That said...

He shifts his weight, annoyed by the pricking of his conscience. A memory of his earlier years as Solus resurfaces, unbidden. The pain is still (relatively) fresh. ]

I lost a firstborn son to disease. [ His gaze is resolutely fixed on the classroom as a whole. ] He barely lived to see past twenty summers. Their mother died not long after the second child was born. So I do understand what it is like to be a sole parent.