I was.

[Hayame did not normally tell this tale, not any longer. Too many people doubted it, or cast dispersions, and she was tired of arguing. But now...]

When she held me, she made the mistake of making it seem as if it were my very own mother doing so, something comforting and familiar...

[And in the moment, it had been, but the moment she was free to think for herself...]

But my mother was an Armless, who never held me once.

[She does not explain "Armless". She does not think she has to.]

- How is it that you are so certain?

[Far too many believed that matronly lie.]