From the seed of dishonor is all honor sown. The one act that betrays all of your principles either breaks you forever or like forge-fire casts you anew. People are not born in the happy times. Not in the happy moments.

We cherish those moments and we think that a lifetime of them is what we want. that may be. But it is not what we need. It is in the chaos, in the heartbreak, in the horror, in the betrayals that we are forged. You heat the metal until it is red hot, you beat it into shape but at then at some point you must quench it. You must be done with all that can be done and it must be quenched in blood.

Sometimes the blade is cracked, flawed and broken . It never recovers. Your only option is to melt it back down and attempt again. Sometimes the flaws are deep in its heart and it just becomes weaker and weaker. Sometimes the blade is serviceable. Most fall into this category. But some, some are stronger than it seemed they could be. From corruption, impurity comes the strongest steel.