Might Have To Tell Me Again

He certainly hadn't expected their conversation to take this turn when he invited her to spend time with him, but he was almost glad that it had. He could ask all the surface level questions he wanted about the things she liked to do or her preferences on various things, but it was moments and conversations like these that really let him get to know her and understand what her life had been like before they found one another. As he listened to her talk about how she had gotten her closure, that she knew that her mother hadn't wanted her and that she had been abandoned, the guilt he had felt at the fact that he hadn't been there for her all along returned. He understood that there was no way he could have known, that the only mistake he had made was having a one night stand with a woman he hadn't really known, but he was still guilty.

"Knowing probably does make it easier to move on, but it doesn't make it any less painful," he told her with a soft, sympathetic smile. "I'm... sorry you experienced that. I know apologies only go so far, I just... I just wish there's more I could have done. I wish I could have been there." Twice he had children with women that for one reason or another had left their children. It was still a mystery whether Azariah's was voluntary or not, but either way it was still hurt and damage done to his children and now all he could do was try to pick up the pieces. "You're wanted here. She may not have wanted you, but I'm happy you get to be in my life now," he told her honestly, giving her a more genuine, warm glance as they continued to follow the castle wall around the grounds.

Ulric Adravendi