"Mm." The sound was thoughtful, to indicate he was considering how to answer. Human was close, but not quite what he was trying to get at. "To know what I would have been like, had my family lived. Or if I'd gone through with giving up my surname willingly."
There had been a time, once, when he'd considered it. When he'd considered that someone like him could have another life. It had been a fleeting thought and now it was clouded with bitterness. Old enough that it wasn't sharp, at least, and decidedly less important to give bandwidth than the problem Valdis next presented.
"No doubt the storm is to blame," he said with purposeful neutrality, resolutely clinging to calm with middling success. The rise and fall of his chest wasn't solely due to exertion anymore, surely. "One problem at a time."
The loss of his gift name, while not inherently tied to his general existence, was still deeply worrying. He'd only had to use it once and she didn't seem on the edge of going insane, but the storm was far from over. They wouldn't be out of the woods until the sun shone again - assuming their powers would return to normal when that happened. Knowing she would feel what he did all the more intensely, he did his best to remain logical.
Hila's appearance startled him - right, his senses weren't as sharp like this, he'd forgotten what it was like when he was a child - but only for a moment. The ka's presence was a relief, honestly. Valdis needed more help than he could give right now. "I'm not the one you need to be most concerned with, wolf," he told her, gesturing for the ka to attend her incapacitated master.
no subject
There had been a time, once, when he'd considered it. When he'd considered that someone like him could have another life. It had been a fleeting thought and now it was clouded with bitterness. Old enough that it wasn't sharp, at least, and decidedly less important to give bandwidth than the problem Valdis next presented.
"No doubt the storm is to blame," he said with purposeful neutrality, resolutely clinging to calm with middling success. The rise and fall of his chest wasn't solely due to exertion anymore, surely. "One problem at a time."
The loss of his gift name, while not inherently tied to his general existence, was still deeply worrying. He'd only had to use it once and she didn't seem on the edge of going insane, but the storm was far from over. They wouldn't be out of the woods until the sun shone again - assuming their powers would return to normal when that happened. Knowing she would feel what he did all the more intensely, he did his best to remain logical.
Hila's appearance startled him - right, his senses weren't as sharp like this, he'd forgotten what it was like when he was a child - but only for a moment. The ka's presence was a relief, honestly. Valdis needed more help than he could give right now. "I'm not the one you need to be most concerned with, wolf," he told her, gesturing for the ka to attend her incapacitated master.