He knew better: Healing had much to do with rebuilding houses or training soldiers, but the intense battle for reconciliation was really about forgiveness. Remorse yet clawed at his insides, and through all that had devoured him in a consuming anger and blinded him in needing revenge, he now had to learn to forgive, not only the dragons but himself.
Rein sat one afternoon by a quiet stream alone, with thoughts wandering through the many lives he had taken: a dragon warrior who had fallen beneath his flames, some creatures whose pleas had been silenced by death.
He breathed deeply, closing his eyes. "Forgiveness... Not so much for the dragons, is it? It's for me."
Elara joined him in silence. "Forgiveness is never easy, Rein. It is not absolving the past, though; instead, it is freeing yourself from it."