... Ardyn.

[ She murmurs his name, again, as she listens to him stumbles over all those words, but yet she notes he avoids committing in the end with how he hesitates. Here they were perhaps on the precipice of her own concerns -- 'I wonder that calling it something more might burden him with feeling he needs to meet some expectation.' ]

... It is not your care that I doubt. However, before all of this... I know that we were starting to become closer. I do not wish for us to lose sight of that either... for it to be consumed by this fear and... helplessness. Ardyn, do you --

[ And here she needs a moment to pause and fumble for the words, because there was nothing more trying than being an ancient dealing with terminology, god she's all flappy wings, flappy ears, she can barely say the words but she has to say something or he won't find any measure of courage to commit -- and then, would it be real? Would he just be pleasing her? Such unnecessary torment. She thinks of Lup to find her own courage. ]

-- do you find that your ... feelings... in this matter... are more pronounced than fondness?