She revealed to him that neither Asriel, Skoll nor Morganna had ever asked about their father; only then did it occur to Angier that the trio had possibly never even heard of or even uttered the word. Dad. Daddy. Father. All they had ever known - and he, too should have known, being Skoll's diction teacher and all during those first few months - was "Mama" and "Mother." It stung a bit as he thought of Trisden and Hocus and even Fenru, Corinna's fireball of a son, but in those three examples, he realized that perhaps it had been for the best. Hell, even without their father around, he, Skana and Guinness were always on their feet. Kiche had merely been out of sight, out of mind. So long as Kiche stayed out of their lives, maybe, the young princess and the princess were capable of keeping both chips on each of their shoulders.

If he, Angier Lyall, left... Maybe it wouldn't be so bad... aside from whatever guilt sprung up when his need to travel gave out at last. Again, he sniffled, his thoughts flying about as he hastily tried to organize and prioritize them again until it became clear: his mind wanted the thrill of the mountainside and the endless reaches of the meadows but his heart - oh, his heart - cried for him to be sensible and consider all that was at stake.

He had been given everything to lose since he first set foot on Elettra's territory, even more so when he rose to leadership alongside the Archer matriarch herself. He could not just let everything go now... Not now... not ever.

When the silence had crept back between them, he kept quiet. His train of thought had been derailed; Elettra was right to think that her present children would probably never ask. Kiche was the past and that statement alone had somehow transitioned so smoothly into the next subject of interest that it felt as though it had been expected and unexpected all at once.

"Do you still love me?"

His brows rose and he peered at her incredulously. The beating organ in his chest ached and pulsed in an anguished rhythm. "Is this what you want?" Upon first impression the tone in her voice easily had him wanting to reach out and console her further; on a second thought, he steeled himself before finally letting everything out. "Elettra," he breathed.

"I..." his head tilted to one side and then the other, scrambling to assemble the right words and compose it all in the right tone. "Yes," he murmured, as though he were afraid the other Ridge wolves were nearby to hear his every word. "This... This is more than I could 'ave ever hoped for." Though the fear still kept its grip on ever muscle in his limbs - the worry that he, like the rest of the fathers he knew, would leave his partner - he did his best to keep it at bay. It left him to gaze at her both in relief and a kind of sadness that was only hinted at by how his ears slightly rotated back.

"I do love you," he asserted, a pained smile tugging at his ivory maw. "I had, I have, I... I still do." He swallowed hard, "All this time... I... I thought I'd ne'er find you." It felt as though a sharp stick was being driven into his ribs; it was taking everything he had to keep himself from inching forward and burying his face in her dark shoulder. "You're all I could 'ave ever asked for. You have given me everything I have e'er wanted an' more..." His muzzle dipped downward. "I am still so afraid," he whispered in admittance, his eyes staring down at both of their paws in the snow. "I want so much to make you 'appy... I'm afraid I'll be--" the whiskers above his eyes quivered until the light spots on his face momentarily touched, "--like Borden, like Kiche... Alexander... Indru... I couldn't... I would die if I ever found myself apart from you."

He let out an airy sigh, the sound of it exiting his jowls only partially relieving him of the anxiety that still fluttered about in his chest. Her words at first did little to console him but the sentiments that came after she had confirmed that even more parents had left their families rekindled the confidence that lay in pieces beneath the fire that fueled his trepidation. "I think your difference will make the difference," she reassured him, "your fear will be your focus." His ears cautiously came back up, slowly as though there were some invisible electric current humming just above his head. Her breathing seemed to be the sound that he had needed to hear; one deep breath and he also let both of his shoulders relax. His whole body posture sank down a few inches and he cracked a smile when she uttered to him:

"You will not leave me... Or you will die."

A part of him wanted to chuckle, to laugh, to bow down, and worship her as he seemingly always had. She was right. She was always right. He tensed his jaw, trying hard to contain the tickled grin on his snout, but then... she laughed. It sounded like bells in his ears; never in Angier Lyall's life had he ever heard such a youthful, feminine and equally womanly sound. Jaysyek had rarely spoken to him, Skylah had seemed girlish, his young nieces had only ever tittered amongst themselves and growled at him... Vlarindara Windrunner and everyone else who had failed to come to mind had, at long last, been forgotten... even the smallest of Elettra Archer's smirks and chuckles, in all her cunning and designing ways, were by far his favorite. Just like that, his worries temporarily went away.

"I would," he justified, casting her a now grateful smile. Whether he met his end by the emotional weight of all the guilt and blame or delivered to Death, himself, by the Dark Lady's own bite, it would be true. Ever so carefully he leaned towards her so that the wisps of their winter pelts on each of their shoulders just barely touched then, just as he had always done, angled his head to touch his nose to her off-white chin. "I'm yours," he whispered through the blackness, lightly nuzzling her before pulling away. "Nothing will ever change that."