Simon had meant the gratitude.
Without The One, he doubted he would ever have encountered a presence capable of rendering Fearless this helpless.
The skill had resisted, and the terror had passed through anyway.
That failure had exposed something he had never properly examined. Beneath the composure he took for granted, his pride had been far weaker and more fickle than he liked to believe.
Now he understood it better.
He understood himself better.
And inside his Prime Forged Heart, a third seed was on the verge of forming.
Did that make Fearless useless?
Should he abandon it now that he had discovered what its protection had kept him from understanding?
Of course not.
Simon might be arrogant, but he was not eager to become an idiot.
Fearless had helped him on countless occasions. It had allowed him to think when pain, danger, and desperation should have ruined his judgment. There were battles he might not have survived without that clarity.
