Giving herself over to the ephemeral bond she had with Dalindme strengthened it and brought some focus to ask he shared with her. Deliberately opening herself to it by closing her eyes and welcoming it all in granted Melinda access to some of the nuances of his life. Especially as she reacted to ask she experienced. All he had gone through, to him, was a crucible that burned away every weakness in him in preparation for his service to her. Each fight had been an opportunity to grow. Each victory helped him grow stronger, grow  faster, grow cunning, grow vivacious and terrifying, grow capable of any cruelty in order to be ready for the day he was Called. This is why, for him, there was no sorrow attached to his upbringing, without it he would not be all she needed him to be.<br/><br/>Dalindme marveled at the tears fleeing down Melinda's cheeks as they turned into emeralds by the light of the glowing, floating orbs nearby. They stained his fingertips as she ran then over her tears and named them while sharing the why behind them. A gentle rush of appreciation washed over her as he felt and acknowledged her sympathy for him. At the same time Melinda got the sense of a void in him as he had no true concept of compassion, nothing in his world up until now had been an example of it. In some way, like a blind man who had never seen a flower or a sunset, he was essentially 'blind' to such things, so much so that opposites good and bad were alien to him.<br/><br/>"No tears, not now," Dalindme growled softly, losing a bit of the roughness in his voice as he spoke to Melinda. He looked at her, dark eyes shimmering like moonlight over a lake, relaxed and content in a way she now knew was rare for him. He reached out an arm and drew her closer, his massive hand playing gently over her hair as no one has done since her parents passed. He breathed in, deep and steady, as he embraced her tenderly, possessively as he said nothing but quietly promised to make her well, then lay the world at her feet.