LYSSARA
Kaelrith's apology knew its own limitations, and so did I by the time he finished delivering it.
I had spent eleven months preparing for the version where he made excuses and the version where he did not come at all, and the version where he came with his Alpha authority intact and his understanding incomplete.
I hadn't prepared for this version, the one where the apology arrived, already knowing what it couldn't fix and offered itself anyway, without asking for credit for the offering.
I had no answer for it. I stood in the grey morning and let it be.
I told him the apology was received.
Not accepted; I was specific about the distinction, and I watched him receive the distinction like someone who had expected it and had come prepared to accept it as fair. Received meant I he
