[He is one ill-versed in the hearts of others, yet he has learned by degrees slow and steady how to listen to hers: and so he can hear how quickly she buries her cares, buried as would be a seed that swells within the soil and there takes root. It strikes him suddenly that she so rarely speaks her grievances. This truth he sees now only through the absence of her cares in conversations of days past, just as one might note the sun only when a cloud at long last passes before it and casts its wide-reaching shadow. Thus his words soften when again he speaks.]

I meant only that you have committed no wrong such that warrants punishment of any sort. If you are happy, it is because you deserve this blessing for the joy with which you have blessed so many. And if those of ALASTAIR thought themselves fit to judge you as only gods have the right to judge men, then I would decry them for their impudence.

[His lips are gentle upon the crown of her head.]

Be not afraid to share your grievances as I have so often shared with you.