Lyra Erso. The dead mother. Cassian knows all about dead parents, and he's not about to start shit over that as much as he wants to. "Perhaps I am following what my father would have wanted too."

He feels prickly, and it's not an act. His head lifts up, and he fixes her with his own hard stare. He is, in a way, following in his parents footsteps, just not necessarily in the academic sense.

"You assume I have not been to any of these planets, and you assume I don't know how to do my own work." He says this coolly, any amusement gone from his face. "Not that I need to explain myself to you, but I do not dive in blind on context for the works I choose to study. There are themes I focus on, homeworld similarities, and the circumstances of displacement - all of which I would never dream of ignoring."