He simply accepted the hit, without moving flinching, or otherwise reacting to the blow, though as she collapsed, he caught her, not even bothering to make the otherwise required intervening movements. Even as he caught her, and craddled her too him, they were in one of his memories, sitting in the nursery, just her and him, the other children indistinct. She was curled up in his lap, his hand brushing her hair as she dozed, a faint smile on his lips, before they were back on the plane. "I left because my other options were death, or killing Inari and Ama to rip myself free of the binding to the ritual that Verdelet had set up. I died, and the blood and death magic made the ritual to bring and naturalize beyonders into the material my spell, not hers, though she could direct. I survived because V'elen had anticipated that ploy, and deliberately built a counter for it, but that blood was binding was not something it was aware of. So I would either have to substitute at least one person for me, do nothing and perish as the portal destabilized and blew a good third of the PLANE off with the fury of a balefire blast, or dive through to lessen the blast, and hope that I could, possibly, come home at some point. I had no control over the situation, almost at all, and only enough to prevent a total disaster."<br/><br/>He kissed her forehead, before a single, heart wrenching thought slipped out.<em>I was, and likely always will be, a terrible failure of an excuse for a father.</em>