The sincerity and tenderness of the statement left Avon without words for a moment. He had never been the most important thing in anyone's life before, and the realistic of it was always overwhelming.

"Assisted...yes, but I would put it more strongly than that. 'Rescued' would not be too dramatic a term. You know better than anyone how desperately I tried to escape the village at first, obsessed with setting right all the mistakes I'd made, erasing the endless series of failures my life had become. I no longer feel the need to do that. People talk very freely about the concept of second chances, but few are unfortunate enough to genuinely need them, and far fewer still are fortunate enough to find them. I found mine, here - not because of the village. Because of you. Anything good that was left in me was buried far too deeply for me to see. But you saw it." He paused a moment, wanting to say more, but there were no words to cover the rest of it, the greatest part of it. So he simply added, quietly and sincerely, "thank you."