The Weight of Conditions
"Courage isn't the word," Aden said, his voice a low whisper, no more than a murmur, yet it cut across the destroyed courtyard like a sword through stagnant air. "It's faith. Faith in the man you can become."
Those words hit Leon in the chest with the force of a hammer. For one harried heartbeat, he was frozen; his lungs wouldn't take in air rightly. Something deep down stirred within him—a shaking blend of disbelief, raw desire, and small, stubborn spark of hope he hadn't let himself touch in years. His eyes went wide, capturing Aden's eyes, and for the first time in what was all too long like an eternity, surprise tempered the roughened edges of his face. Slowly, intentionally, he nodded, as if assenting to a truth he had long intuited but never dared avow out loud.
