“How old is she, Valla?”
“She chose you, and you left her.”
“Please, Valla.”
“Do you know how much hurt you caused her?”
“Please.”
“Do you know how insulting this is?”
“Please.”
“Daimd.”
“Please, Valla.”
“Twelve years. She has seen twelve summers without you here.”

... I will wither long before you cease to greet the endless summer of your youth, my beautiful elf. What, then, will you do? Will you follow me, as I have followed you? Will you find another beast to share your days, and capture him as you took hold of me?

No, love, you'll resent me my short-lived orc life, nevermind that half all and more of it belonged to you and you alone. The years given us are numbered too few for me to bear, too few for you to grasp. Our infinite todays and tomorrows will evaporate at the sound of creaking old bones.

So I will never ask you, Quinn, how many years you have lived, for I know the answer already: You are old enough, and forever far too young.

If I loved her only half as much as I love you, she would be blessed with more love than any greater parent ever gave their child.

I take pride in her; she is my Valm. I am not her father, and could never hope to be. And she will never keep me while I cannot be what I am, to her. She cannot take comfort in being the only child whose name I know and carry with me across the world. She cannot know she has meaning to me because I will not give her that one word.

Ancestors why, why did you put a creature in this world that is not anything but itself?

I swear to you, I swear by the tears I cry because I cannot, I swear that when I have the means to explain what this is and what I am, I swear that I will tell you first, and I will tell you wholly. I will tell you every thought I have harboured and every feeling I have felt since youth, since infancy, since memory; all things regarding me, and myself, and I.

I dry my eyes and go to you, because this confuses you as it has never confused me. I have always known that I am Daimd. You know only the Daimd you see (and smell and touch and taste and feel).

(Love me. Do not leave me. I have never had anything to lose before you, and you take the world when you go.)