[ Mayerling appreciates both the wave of anger and its quenching that he feels from Sharon. It hurts, a bonedeep ache that never entirely fades, but time has given him distance from the immediacy of the news and perspective on the context around what happened at that time. That doesn't make loss any less, to know the flaws in his family's behavior, in the consequences of their actions, but it undercuts what hate might flow. ]

No species is perfect, and that includes humanity. That they are capable of terrible deeds when wronged, when they feel wronged, and when caught up in a group is not unique to them. It is far from all that they are, and in the face of vampires giving up on existence for extinction, their tenacity and will to live fills me with admiration. No matter how long or how many times they are pushed down and hurt, they carry on and rebuild and try again. Would that we all had such tenacity.

And that is but the beginning.