Nova Peak Skeptic

She was a warrior. It comforted him. He wanted to tell her that he, too, had been trained to fight in his youth. He did not fear battle even if it might cause him death or doom. Takiyok agreed with him, though, that it was a hard-to-swallow pill that Wylla was selling. Taki was not willing to sacrifice those she loved on a split judgment.
Takiyok continued, telling of Stag and his odd loyalty and its vague reasoning. Personally, Taikon hated that he would be willing to follow something without evidence, but he knew that Stag was important to Taki. It seemed more than clear to Taikon that Taki's son merely followed Wylla for nothing else to follow. It was a pattern he had seen with those who followed his mother. In contrast to Taikon's usual conversations with Takiyok, he was unwilling to hear her when she spoke of Stag's loyalty and her own guilt. He followed instead what she said after.
You can let him fight without you if you accept that his decisions are his. And that you will always be waiting to catch him, waiting in the wings, Taikon said, knowing his friend would not like the answer. It didn't matter. They were on the brink of war, and she needed to see reason. You love your son. But you have to do what is right, he said, slowly. He didn't even know what it meant. All he knew was that this faux enemy of the Rusalka would land them nowhere. If Stag followed Wylla off the cliff, he would be lost, and it would be his choice, and Taikon refused to let her go with him.