<span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff">He sighed and shook his head softly as he listened to her speak.</span><b><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#b30000">"I cannot do what you say, Raida." </span></b><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff">He said, tasting her name for the first time. His voice was low, rough, but it seemed like it could have been gentle at one time. She did not claim a clan or give the name of her mother's house, elvish lines were done matrilineal rather than like the humans who followed the lines of their fathers. Nevertheless, he was pleased by the sound of her voice on his tongue. It had been too long since he had had civilized conversation, even longer with one of his own kind and he relished the opportunity to speak with her, even if what he was saying was something that she might not want to hear, </span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#b30000"><b>"You have saved my life, such as it is. I cannot forsake my oath now until the debt has been paid in full. I am sorry."</b> </span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff">He said in contrition, his eyes breaking contact hers to stare numbly at the ground. He turned his attention away from the ground to watch her curiously as she retrieved her weapons and cleaned them of the blood.</span><b><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#b30000">"Only the Mother Goddess may relieve my of my oath." </span></b><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff">He said quietly, stubbornly. He wished he could have said something besides those simple words but the only thing remaining to him was his word and he was not about to lose that on top of everything else he had lost. He pulled his spear from the ground and idly wiped the dirty from the blade before turning it around so that the spear blade pointed towards the heavens. The last thing he had wanted to do was give his oath to a woman, even an elvish woman, he had just met. </span>