"What? Are you trying to speak?"

He strokes the side of its face gently, careful to avoid the brambles that bind the Warden like so many chains. Lips twisting bitterly, he shakes his head.

"Always full of surprises," he says quietly. "Vauthry could speak but he was half-man, half-eater. Do you even possess a tongue...?"

The Echo would surely let him understand without the need to verbalise. But touching their soul now would be tantamount to suicide.