he saw aurëwen’s gentle protestations as her grief manifesting. the lilac stare softened; did he not too know what a torment this could be? he, who had both lost a love and acted to abandon others. the gargoyle judged her not, only the man who had undoubtedly left the motherdove and her fledglings.
he was not inclined to show mercy to verx, even in his own hypocrisy. but perhaps that was why mahler held so coldly to his announcement — it was not an action that he could ever again tolerate. yet his eyes drifted over those of the woman again, over to where her children played. 
did they too deserve the routing of their father, the collapse of the fabric they had only just begun to recognize? and there was the matter of the practical. mahler was invested in the young family as both a diasporan and as a father; if he denied aurëwen this request, would she depart to seek verx’ unfaithful side, and draw with her the pups that throve in the shadow of the mountains?
the shadowpriest thought upon all of this musingly, and at length lifted his chin to level his gaze upon the woman once more. ”that choice is yours alone. but he vill not cross the borders.” the canyon, perhaps, or the stand of trees that lay just a mile beyond their delineating lines.
perhaps in time would aurëwen come to discard the memory of he who had left her, but for now, mahler did not wish his decree to be seen as an act of saccharine mercy. guilt choked him; regret etched itself in his eyes, but verx had no loyalty to either his children or diaspora, and so the gargoyle did not see fit to grant him rights where he had once walked.