A look of dismay came across her face, clouds across her eyes as she tried to figure out how to say it better... tried and failed. "I... am what is beneath the skin..." she said again, with a small whimper. She gestured helplessly with her free hand.

She tried again, nearly crying. "The... self.... I am... I..." she seemed so distressed.

Then the smallest whimper and the quietest of voices, "I am a shattered chalice," she whispered, as if confessing a dark secret that hurt her deeply. She shook terribly.