Mudminnow River If I ever were to lose you, I'd surely lose myself.

he did not want the interminable decline between he and ciri to reach a focal point. her small voice reminded him of how she had been as a child; so grim and damning, that all the memories mahler had of his daughter were from when she was littler. when time, perhaps, was more simple. only it had not been, and was not now.
"vylla is there, healing," he admitted, cutting to the heart of the matter. there had been friction around his beloved and any mention of ciri or elke. his daughter was grown now, to a point where mahler felt it pertinent to be so direct.
he wanted to kiss her forehead. 
"like you she has been avay a long time. sagtannet no longer exists, in more vays than vone. she has — changed since you last knew her." 
mahler took a breath. "stay for a time. perhaps — maybe —" the searchlight of lilac gaze upon his child's face, asking.
but mahler did not have the right to ask, and so eventually his eyes dropped away.