Jade Fern Grove lift back and see the darkness hid

it is not you, it is i, but he would not sully iana's genteel, graceful acceptance of his rejection.
mahler plummeted. whatever ridge of acceptance to which he had clambered now broke beneath him, and he felt lower than almost ever before.
was this self-imposed loneliness the apt price to pay for his sins? yes, mind whispering at once. 
iana was more than capable of rearing her own children beneath wintersbane's knowing eye, though mahler briefly thought in an objective manner of what such a bond could mean for duskfire and rivenwood. then in the next, muted horror. there could be no more babes born through a contract.
he felt the pulse of pain through her eyes, and stared at the ground, though in the next if it could be said, if it could be permitted, mahler reached toward iana with a slow and hesitant sway of muzzle.