Phillip never stops touching him, though there are key parts of the story where his hands pause in their passage through his hair, and it might be Gustavain's imagination but also probably not, that they shake a little after hearing about Amaurot. He doesn't interrupt, not even to ask any questions or clarify just why his voice is so tender when he talks about Emet-Selch, letting the words come out as they may. He's a little afraid that stopping the flow may make it harder to come out again.
He needs a moment to process it all after Gustavain is done, but he does his best to not leave them in silence for too long. "I'm sorry," he says, kissing the side of the man's head and it's an apology for many things, first and foremost how much Gustavain has suffered, "I wish-- I wish I had gone with you. I could have-- I don't know, but maybe I could have helped with something."
To his knowledge (as flawed as it may be), he doesn't think there was anything he could have really done. He could not have talked down Emet-Selch, he likely would have been mostly useless in any battles, and he's near certain that he wouldn't have been able to do anything about the light aether (though not entirely). But at minimum he could have been there to just do more of this, hold him when it was too much.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2021-06-21 12:02 am (UTC)He needs a moment to process it all after Gustavain is done, but he does his best to not leave them in silence for too long. "I'm sorry," he says, kissing the side of the man's head and it's an apology for many things, first and foremost how much Gustavain has suffered, "I wish-- I wish I had gone with you. I could have-- I don't know, but maybe I could have helped with something."
To his knowledge (as flawed as it may be), he doesn't think there was anything he could have really done. He could not have talked down Emet-Selch, he likely would have been mostly useless in any battles, and he's near certain that he wouldn't have been able to do anything about the light aether (though not entirely). But at minimum he could have been there to just do more of this, hold him when it was too much.