Noctisardor Bypass anything at all to keep me close to you

new life. a new path. druid returned. sequoia come back.
mahler was reduced and renewed. rivenwood must rebuild itself and succumb no longer. and indra must be returned to them. the man walked with a stride more determined than he had felt in some time. his wounds still plagued the man, for his found this recovery to be taxing. 
he would not apologize for seizing his time with wylla. his selfishness, he hoped, had sowed a future for rivenwood, one defiant in the face of what had occurred. but mahler did not forget. and he did not forgive.
the two young heathens had hurt him badly. it was a credit to the resilience of resentment that he had returned to hismelf at all. 
laurel's energy was thorny. she had returned to the water. mahler drew close, his limp near mirroring his own.
mahler did not want to fight, and he was guilty in his silence that he did not feel the warring spirit move in him. only reservation. reticence. a willingness to uproot.
the awareness that he might always move forward even if he could never go back. how many times had his lack of a backward look sundered another? and why were others willing to follow him even now? he had been a horrendous leader — capitulation.
and that was his true cowardice.
he could not think of what to say. any words he spoke now would be the wrong ones, for he had given nothing back to her in return for her service.