Wade was taken aback by the sudden question shot at him by the attractive emotionless female. [i]So what's your secret?[/i] He scratched his head and twiddled his pipe around for a little. His face seemed to go from worry to a little more dark and stricken expression. "That's..." He paused, looking a little foreboding, "...very complicated." The emotion seemed to leave him as he recalled a memory, it flashing before his eyes in a few seconds.

He recalled the smell of burning wood all around him, the feeling of heat from fires causing him to sweat, and the burning dead. The stench of bodies burning, flesh leaving the skin. It made him want to vomit. Most everyone was taking to covering their mouths with long clothes that could tie around their heads. Wade felt as though his nose hairs were burnt off from the blazing fires.

This memory was of the Genocide of Westbrook. A horrible event that Wade had a personal hand in. They had successfully stormed a fortress, having warned it at the beginning of the siege that if they didn't surrender, all would die and all would be burnt down. Now that it had been taken, they were making good on their word. Any survivors would be taken into captivity and forced labor. Any who got lazy and refused to work, would be beaten to death.

Zooming back into the present, Wade puffed a few times on his pipe and said, "I was once a peasant and I was thrown into the wars of nobles. I was a man-at-arms." That was the simple response. They took him at the onset of his manhood and made him to fight their wars. Manpower was the greatest commodity for a noble and Wade had been part of that commodity. "Wade, the fighter." He said it slowly, mulling over the sound of it while puffing at his pipe.

"Who are you again?" He said, realizing he didn't actually know the name of the woman he was talking to. In fact, he really didn't know anyone's names.