I read all of the available draft and am reminded in very positive ways of Robert Heinlein’s novels and also of the more recent Battlestar Galactica series. I loved Cora as a character and even felt a small cheer building as she was made a sentinel towards the end. I highlighted this one passage to stand in for many others because this represents one of the main things that I would consider in revision. Stephen King once wrote that "the road to hell is paved with adjectives", probably stealing that advice in some fashion from Hemingway, Orwell or Twain - the point is that he might be right. We know that Cora is replying candidly based on your italicizing of the word "am" for emphasis, which to me implies that this is an admission versus a perfunctory answer. There are other instances of superfluous adjective use in the draft, so I just thought it worth mentioning, because in revision it is always one of the things that I seek to reduce. Trust your readers (and your writing), in the sense that they will infer many of the things that you have taken the time to tell them, from the subtleties and complexities of your story and character development (show don’t tell). I’m really into this story so far, and will be following your work with interest! Thanks for writing and sharing this - Jeremy