Bramblepoint but i'm only human

Her face stiffens more into stone. She had taken offense. Yao frowns, more at himself for seeming crass in the face of her raw emotions. I did not mean that you cannot mourn. Just that the volume may attract unwanted attention. He bows his head slightly. Not me — I mean no harm. he adds quickly. 

He isn't surprised by her sharp words, nor the fact that her grief turned to anger and rage in his presence. He bears the brunt of her words, trying his best to quell any lashes of indignancy that bubbled inside him. I cannot, he shakes his head. No one can — no one of good intent, anyway, He does not know what words of comfort to give to this foreign woman, who speaks a second tongue unbeknownst to himself or anyone he knew back home. He had long known that the people beyond his homeland thought differently than he about many things, especially about the dead, but this was the first time he had been confronted with that reality. I don't know what you believe, ma'am, but where I come from, the dead remain to assist the living. Especially those they loved in life and who loved them in return. This person isn't really gone. Their mortal, physical body may be ended, but the important part of them — their soul — that remains. That's the part that remembers. And loves. He locks eyes with her for a moment. His normally stoic face slipped away at the shows of her grief. He cannot help himself to feel pity for the woman. Death was something that awaited them all, but even with the beliefs that he had, it never made the pain any less sharp.