" She used to hate conflict and had associated this feeling with a churning stomach and the notion that things were in discord, breaking down, hopeless. You could patch things up later, glue the relationship back together, but the cracks remained. Sooner or later it broke for good. Now, though, it was a good feeling. It meant she'd acted. Headed off a threat. Conflict wasn't necessarily a portent of decay. Instead, it was a weapon to keep that decay away from you—if you had the balls to use "

― Edward W. Robertson , Cut Off (Breakers, #5)