forgiving the person that killed your wife....

Hello everyone :)
So I'm editing a manuscript o' mine and in it, I have two brothers named Paul and Barnabas (no Biblical pun intended, lol). Both characters have previously lived in a magic underwater city where Surface Dwellers who are lured there from our world are killed for their Breath that fuels the city's dwindling air supply.

So, Barnabas has had kind of a shady past. Barnabas used to be one of the Surgeons, the group of people assigned to perform Operations on Surface Dwellers and take their Breath. After Barnabas became a Surgeon, Paul and Barnabas had a fight and fell out of touch. Well Paul then fell in love with a Surface Dweller was able to convince the rulers of the city not to kill her, he married her, and had a daughter with her.

And then came the Purging. There came a time in the city when they were severely running short on Breath, so they decided to take the Breath of the Surface Dwellers that were already living in the city, even if they had been living there for years. And so Paul's wife and daughter were killed...by none other than his dearest brother Barnabas and the rest of the Surgeons.
After the Purging Barnabas and Paul both had conversions. Paul took it upon himself to try and save every Surface Dweller that came to the city while Barnabas fell in love with and saved a Surface Dweller himself, an action that cost him his job as a Surgeon and got him exiled from the captol of the city. Well Paul eventually gets imprisoned for treason for helping my MMC who stumbles into the city. And who helps rescue Paul from prison? None other than his brother Barnabas who was persuaded by MMC. Together Paul, Barnabas and all assortment of other characters flee the city.

But afterwards...would Paul and Barnabas forgive each other? They haven’t talked in years. It’s been three years since Paul’s wife and daughter died. I'm trying to edit my last chapter and I just don't know. Barnabas is sorry for killing Paul's wife. He realizes now that taking Breath- no matter of who- is wrong. He does apologize, and he has changed from who he once was. So if you were Paul would you forgive Barnabas? Would you say so? Or would being able to stand being in the same room as your treacherous brother be as close to ever forgiving him as you're going to get?

I just really have no idea how to write these two brothers' reconciliation. I don't know if they should forgive each other or not- talk to each other or not. So my question to you WriMo's is-- would you be able to forgive the person who killed your wife and daughter?
Thanks everyone :)

Wow, that's a hard one.

I have to admit, by using the name Barnabas, I am reminded of the Bible. And since I'm reminded of the Bible, I automatically think that yes, there should be forgiveness. After all, isn't that what the Bible preaches? So I'm afraid that intentional or not, your story would seem to have parallels to the Bible. Just my opinion.

Bible principles aside, I think them forgiving each other depends on their personality and how much each has changed. It sounds like Paul has been aware this whole time who exactly had killed his wife and daughter. Here's the thing: I really don't know if I would be able to forgive Barnabas. Maybe if it was just the wife, then maybe. But the daughter? That one would be hard to forgive. But it's not impossible. It also sounds like they both changed quite a bit, so I can seem them capable of forgiving.

Does Paul feel? Is Paul ultimately human? Or is Paul something less? I take it that you are not a parent? To know that someone chose to kill my child so that they could live? That a city, a people chose to kill my child so that they could continue to enjoy their lavish lifestyle. If it was me, truthfully I'd not work to see that the surface dwellers could live there, but rather I would say that city has forfeit their right to exist. I'd work, to see that it died, that it was no more. Three years is but a drop in the ocean. That wound would still be raw. Shrug... By my values it is not acceptable, and Paul paid a price, by accepting that lifestyle.

Well, it says that forgiveness is necessary, that it is something we need to do to be able to move on, but honestly, in his place, I most probably wouldn't seek to move on. So his brother’s sorry for what he has done? Great for him, hope he chokes on his sorrow.
I don’t think I would be able to forgive him, but even if – I wouldn’t grant him the satisfaction to let him know that I was.

I’m really not sure how I would react to my brother if he even dared as much as to try and apologize. This is not some simple matter one can let slide over a simple apology, like taking your car and trashing it or abusing your trust and steal money from you, and to hint that one could, by trying to offer one, would serve as nothing more than a further insult to those that had to suffer at his hands.

His brother changing from who he was isn’t going to change what he did, it can’t bring back the dead, but unfortunately blood is thicker, so some part of him might still long to be able to reconcile with his brother regardless of what has been done.

He wouldn't even be able to look at barnabas IMO. If he attempted to talk to him he'd end up killing him. Unless he is some sort of robot.

How do the non-Surface Dwellers regard the Surface Dwellers? Are the SDs regarded as cattle to be used as needed, or as valuable resources?

And how do the Non SDs treat the SDs? Kindly, before they kill them? With great indifference?

If the non SDs have convinced themselves that the SDs running out of air would be a terrifying thing, they could also have convinced themselves that the death of an SD would be a mercy.

Perhaps the Surgeons see/saw things this way, whereas the Rulers perhaps knew the real truth? The SDs were there only so their breaths could be harvested for the good of others.

If in his own mind, Barnabas really believed this, he would see his job as a form of mercy killing. And perhaps he somehow learns the truth, and he would have to learn to live with what he had done, and not just to Paul's family. And if Paul felt that the deaths, before the Purge, or before he knew what was behind it, were so that the SDs wouldn't suffer, perhaps he could take some small comfort in the fact that the deed was done by someone known to him and his family, instead of a stranger.

Anyway, just some things to think about . . . . :)