Arrow Lake the caretaker

mahler realized he had spoken with misplaced passion, but he would rather have said all such things than left them silent upon his tongue. it was also a matter of emotion for stigmata, then, something he himself had overlooked. and not for the first time did he send up a quiet thought of gratitude for his kill-brother, thankfulness that the general was not so selfish as to forge his own path without the input of his fellow leaders.
and yet he felt guilty all the same, as if his feelings had dashed by the wayside stigmata's vision for diaspora. it would have to be rectified, he decided, no matter what the ironstar said this day. mahler must not only make amends with him, but with his own self, his own heart, in this respect.
"i vill look after everything while you are away," mahler returned gruffly, though a smile lit in his eyes at the revelation of stigmata's attachment to the fine fat children he and takiyok had created. "and i vill keep a watch over the vale." so far it had been silent, but if there was the faintest murmurings there, mahler would know it, and would stifle it out before it had a chance to catch true volume.