so Eden sank to grief

This too shall pass ;_;

She frowned at his words, and he didn't know why, but she soon pulled away from the touch he offered and averted her gaze from his own. Malachi did not seek to press her further; to be the cause of more discomfort than what he'd already given was a thought the man could not bear. Though reason had sided him with the ember, he still held to the sentiments Scarlett had been unafraid to voice, no matter how quietly they rung in his ears. His loyalty lay divided, though his heart no longer stood with Tuwawi. Rather, what held him were those he had failed to protect - Larus, held by wolves he had been foolish to trust, ones vicious enough to leave bloodied heads on their borders for no reason greater than to invoke terror within their ranks. What held him were those who had come to Duskfire under his rule - Sen and Shalon and Raphael - who still called the Glacier home, and who now lived beneath the word of the Sveijarn. But that was where his loyalty split, because two of these now stood without a home, and he could not abandon them to the devices of the wild.

His gaze followed her as she brushed him by, and though she spoke words of strength, the softness in her voice crushed him and he drew to keep step beside her. He knew the trail well, and the subject of her pursuit. He had fought Tuwawi for the youth on the night they'd found him on Duskfire's edge, but now that the ember held the Glacier, Adlartok was no longer safe. The man bowed his head, knowing this, too, was of his doing, a product of his weakness and his high-strung emotion. Another innocent he had failed to protect, and this one's blood lay directly on his head. He had offered the youth a home and a family. Now if they were not quick, they would be digging his grave.

Scarlett's next inquiry met him like a gentle wave, and his decision was lost in the seafoam. But he spoke - perhaps because of the emotion still flooding his body - and did not conceal his thoughts from her, like he had so many times before. "I wish there was an easy answer, but there's not. I don't know where to go, or what to do. I promised you protection, and I failed to give you that. I can't leave you. But I failed to help Larus, and now his life is in danger, and it's all my fault. I knew where he was. I should have looked for him harder, but I didn't." He took a ragged breath, and his voice waned, "I didn't. I failed everyone, and you and Adlartok the most, and I can't make this right. I don't know how."