" I'm not very good at being a person," she said. "I think I lost the knack of it somewhere along the line, if I ever had the knack. But even I know you were just very cruel to her, and you should't be cruel to your friends when you have any other choice in the world. You need to go and apologize."
"What?" asked Avery again, disbelieving this time, like he couldn't understand what she was talking about. "Why should I apologize for telling her that she can't go outside in a storm and get herself killed? That is just common sense! Would you be asking me to apologize if I'd let her go and be sweped away?"
"No, because we wouldn't let you do that," said Niamh. "There's a difference between speaking truly and being cruel. You were cruel. You chose words you knew would hurt her, and you slung them like stones. Words have power. If they didn't, we wouldn't carry them the way we do. Sometimes, a word is the only weapon you have. Go apologize. "

― A. Deborah Baker , Along the Saltwise Sea (The Up-and-Under, #2)