Valence couldn't help the little shrivel in his already darkened heart when he heard her agree with him. Because he was a monster; once, he saw the faces of the people he killed in dreams. Now, there were too many faces. It was a crowd around him, always suffocating him, any time he went to sleep. Demons, ghosts, trying to take what little revenge they could by haunting their murderer. He didn't blame them.

He couldn't answer for some time. Quietly sobbing as he was, he didn't think he could manage the words. He just ached, and wanted it out. But how could he ever get it out? He was cursed. Is cursed. And those who are cursed are doomed to horrid death and being ill-remembered by everyone. What possible hope was there?

There wasn't.

But he was the hope for his people, and that'd have to be enough.

It had been too long that he had lain here, maybe an hour at this point. Either way, the time to grieve for himself was over. His tears had already frozen over; he furiously wiped the icicles away, more annoyed and frustrated than anything.

Pushing himself up from his laying position, he quietly asked Elise a question.

"And when you were coming here to kill me. Was there a choice? When you thought about it, did you decide to come here to kill me, or think that it simply must be."

He paused, taking a deep, shuddering breath.

"Yes, you should have never come. But you did. I should never have attacked. But I did. We have made our choices, and whatever it may make us, there is nothing more to it than to carry on and hope that we can fix the mistakes of the past."

Wearily, he began pushing himself up, straightening no matter how much his shoulders slumped.

"Come, Elise. Let's get you home. There is nothing for you out here, nothing for you anywhere but at home."