"To the best of my knowledge there are two empaths aboard and I'm still maybe like the sixth-best. You're more in danger of being known against your will in a conversation with Peter Smith or Johnny, but an explanation's probably owing, so." Erin, sitting up on the bed, leans forward and props her elbows on her knees. "Here on the ship all sapient beings give off an energy when they feel powerful emotions, a byproduct that is the currency of the world of wonder. My people call it Glamour, and we need it to thrive. Give me food, water, shelter, love, I'll live; deprive me of Glamour, though, and I'll be a shadow of myself, starving with a full belly as the thing in me that is other than human withers. I can't tell, strictly, what you're feeling...but the nature of those feelings colors the Glamour it creates, changes its...flavor, for lack of a better word. Context and experience does the rest."

So when she'd brought up Helena giving her heart away...