"Alright, thank you." Peiter commented as Sabine stepped away. Deciding it best not to continue the line of conversation, he sat himself down against a tree and leaned his head back against it. He let out a long, deep sigh and closed his eyes. Given all that had transpired, he was glad that Sabine was as calm and understanding as she was about such matters. He reasoned that it came with being a healer, since she had to be intimately familiar with even the most unpleasant aspects of the body in order to be effective. He was also particularly glad that she was indeed a healer, since those thorns had been very, [i]very[/i] painful.

Vilana thought back briefly, though it was not long before she gave up on counting. "Decades, definitely. I don't know exactly how long, but it has probably been most of his adult life by this point. He is seventy or eighty years of age by now. I know many leaders would have stepped down by this point, but his mind has held strong. Technically, anyone of sufficient rank could challenge him for his position. Any of them would easily win, but I don't know of any that would be willing to do that. It would almost be unthinkable. Honestly, he's probably one of the only ones that places any blame on him for the attack. He did nothing wrong, and I don't think anyone else would have done any better."