Brief though their acquaintance has been, there's something about Simon that struck Myr as stone-stable. It's something the faun can instinctively trust even when he can hardly think for grief and fear; it makes him freeze rather than fight when the paladin wraps him up in a hug.

It pulls another wretched noise from somewhere deep within him to be reminded the living care. "They wouldn't, if they'd seen what I'd done. No one did, after. A l-liability," he manages. "A danger. Please--"

He doesn't have strength for more than an abortive pull away from Simon, before he's sagging against that solid wall of him with his face against one broad shoulder. "Please," he echoes. "I have to save them. It has to work, if I try enough; it has to change,"

Exactly how many times has he been through this without it altering in one detail? Too many.

But surely he could fix the next one.