Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-25038310-20160405011238/@comment-5824038-20160424174041

Glorfindel looked up to meet the Redguard's eyes, and was surprised by what he saw. The intense level of emotion and suffering was enough to fill the Brass Knight with empathetic feelings of remorse and regret, without him knowing quite why.

______

'Captain?' came a voice, all too familiar to Glorfindel.

'Yes, Arthur.' His voice was weary and distant. He knew what his lieutenant was going to say long before he began.

Arthur looked around, trying avoid catching his captain's gaze. 'What are we going to do about replacing Saff? I mean, the 5th Halberdiers are one soldier down, now.' His words were strained, as if he really didn't want to be asking this.

Glorfindel sighed and shook his head. 'I haven't decided. Truth be told, I am thinking of not getting anyone to replace him, just leaving it how it is.'

'But why?' Arthur asked, genuine surprise filling his voice.

'Saff was a damn fine soldider, he did everything that was expected of him. And it wasn't enough, in the end. Even our greatest surgeons couldn't help his condition.' His voice quavered ever so slightly. 'We did everything! And it didn't save him! The truth is clear to me now, nobody could replace him and be better. Do better. Survive. All we would do is introduce a new element, one that hadn't fought with us for years, one who wouldn't know what we were doing before the orders were given. I don't want to spend another few years getting back to that just for the sake of one soldier.'

'Is that the only reason?' Arthur asked, unsure if he should tread this far onto the thin ice. 'Or do you not want to go through losing someone again?'

The Brass Knight closed his eyes. 'I don't know,' he said, after a long pause. 'I don't know.' Tears filled his eyes, but he did not let a single one fall. It was unbefitting of such a high-ranking officer to waste energy crying over a mere soldier.

The door burst open and a strapping young man in a leather jerkin looked about in anxious frenzy. 'Captain, where is he? Where's Saff? I heard the surgeons were stitching him back together! I want to see him, I don't care what they all said, I want to see my brother!'

Arthur looked down at the ground and slowly shuffled off outside.

Glorfindel breathed in slowly and exhaled even more slowly. This was going to be difficult. 'Crimson, Saff died on the operating table.' Was saying it so bluntly a good or bad approach?

The soldier's face changed from one of disbelief to one of anger in an instant. He looked like he was about to attack Glorfindel for bringing this news.

Crimson looked into the Brass Knight's eyes, not with hatred, but rather pain. Though his face looked that of a man filled with rage, Crimson's eyes were picturesque of a man not only in physical anguish but of a broken heart. As it is said, the eyes are the windows to the soul.

______

The memory brought a pained expression to Glorfindel's face. He looked back at Jericho with eyes of understanding and suppressed pity. Tears freely ran down his cheeks. No need to keep his emotions in check any more. He was no longer a captain, just an elf.