Sawtooth Spire But time makes you bolder

he did not wish to tell her. his paws had dimmed somewhat in their agony, but now he felt it in his heart at takiyok's softened voice, her thinned frame shifting nearby as she stirred and approached. mahler felt the weight of her quiet shock long before he straightened, glanced into her questing firelit stare.
"my son is gone." he remembered how she had been when one by one, stigmata's children followed off across the mountains. but he had not understood until these past days what it meant to lose a child. a slow blink. he made no move to dispel his curtain of grief, merely rolled his shoulders and closed his eyes against the long ache.
"i have failed at fatherhood. it is my curse for my selfishness."
he had never forgotten his cruelty toward takiyok at the last.