The good of the ugliest

Previously

…But the Serpent’s Pass had shown him more than just treacherous terrain and cunning adversaries. It had shown him the sharp edge of his own limitations, and the unsettling truth of Elara’s words. The Sundered Heart was no simple cure, but a mirror, reflecting the deepest truths of its wielder. And Kaelen knew, with a chilling certainty, that the greatest trials lay not in the treacherous mountains ahead, but within the shattered landscape of his own heart. He pushed himself to his feet, leaning heavily on his dagger, and began the arduous climb towards the crevice, the weight of his past and the uncertainty of his future pressing down on him with the force of the mountain itself.