Sawtooth Spire Wanna believe, wanna believe that you don't have a bad bone in your body

until these horrible moments, mahler had thought himself well-versed in the scourings of wylla's tongue. he had been mistaken, however; he stood grimly hunched beneath her righteous onslaught, a fractured wall of ice under the blade of a crusading paladin. to that end soon his greyblack ears slid back; he continued to listen, but with guard hairs beginning to stiffen with a flaring life.
for all her valid criticisms of him, mahler was not violent, and would have never considered using force to end this firefight. a prickle of guilt followed the involuntary reaction of his hackles, but again, pride planted its damnable flag in his throat. and so he said nothing, nor sought to soften himself.
arrogance — something he had thought he might stamp out, spawned in great armies all along his soul. and though logos sounded an alarm against pathos, the gargoyle began to feel ground down. it was as if her cascading voice turned to the powerful gallop of sea-waves against a stone, wearing at him until his heart felt cold.
wylla cut her verbose fangs more deeply into mahler, suddenly, suddenly, that he turned to face her, great and terrible with his silvershot ruff bristling in a torc of anger and shock, veins of amaranthine revealed along his mountainous visage. "you have built all of your anger upon assumptions, vylla. vintersbane is gone, many of sagtannet departed. both of you have children," and now he sought to rankle her, carelessly throwing off her title. she had rejected his; she, mahler felt viciously, would never be satisified with his love unless she was able to throw its imperfection at him like a projectile.
he stared at her for a long moment, gaze gone fickle and narrow; wylla stood tameless before him, resplendent in her pain and her wrath, her smaller stature expanded by the ferocity of her very marrow. he let out his breath in a churlish rush. "you assume i have been spending every moment of my time vith nyx?" pricked ears. "you believe that i have just fled off? vhy, vylla," mahler demanded in a low rumble, "have you never vonce respected who i am, who i vas before you ever came back?"
may his own spears shatter her porcelain heart. "my agreement to her vas something i made prior to your return. her loyalty has been to diaspora and then to sagtannet. she has been faithful to her leaders. she has earned this. it vas, and never has been, anything to do vith love." a lifted lip. "but no matter how many times i tell you this, have not believed me. not vonce." 
"vintersbane is gone. phaedra and thade are young. nyx' brood is younger, and now ve have more on the vay. have you considered, VONCE!" and now his voice gathered a great volume, eyes shards of lilac in the haunted details of his face, "that you drive me avay from you, but that vhen i stay avay, i am not vith her? that perhaps vhile i am sacrificing such precious moments vith all of you in service of this verdammt place, it is not to spite you. vhy do you believe so so deeply that i could not possibly do it for purposes that are unselfish?"
"if i have a contract vith anyvone, it is vith you. that is the vay you have treated me. you are the only vone who makes me feel so low, and yet i love only you." 
his voice weighed there, the toll of it in his heart; he was hurt and wearied and ashamed and now vengeful. "do not ever insinuate that i do not care for my children, vylla," he rasped in a bruised tone. "i offered vhat i did because you insist they be recognized above all else, to the point that i must deny my other daughters the title of sibling." his gaze flickered finally with a sudden rivulet of warmth along his cheek. "i am sorry i have not loved you as you vished me to love you. now thade is gone, because i vas not there. but it has nothing to do vith my heart."