Loheir leaned on his sword, his nostrels flaired at the scent of burnt flesh and ash. It was an odor he was far too familiar with and one which still tugged at his being. The voices of Holoheim haunted the very back of his mind, their cries blowing in the distant winds. Although none of them knew and many would rather him not, Loheir remembered all of them by name and face. There was Wilburg the Butcher who'd give him raw scraps of venisons on occasoin, Brunida the Innkeeper who gave him the cold bed and an even colder stew, little Dietsar who-

Emotion dragged the Bretonnian's heart down as he lost himself to his memories. Years of "questing" had taken a toil on him for all the comrades he watched die, all the innocents he failed to save, all the vows he couldn't up hold. He sniffled spat out a wad of spit on the ground; had he been younger he would have likely started to weep right then and there. But he had since long cried all his tears out and just like him, his eyes had no more tears to sacrifice.

The knight's mind shifted to a memory of a distant battle on the Bretonnian-Imperial border against a mob of vile Orks. Loheir remembered how he cried out for a surgeon, an apothocary, a priest, anyone to save his dying friends. But no one came and he watched them all die one by one in his arms. A voice rang in the distand winds, just barely louder than the shrill cries of help that paused for a second, [color=silver][i]"You watched them as they fell. You held their hands tight as they died, hoping they'd drag you down with them."[/i][/color]

Through gritted teeth, Loheir banished the voice from his mind and forced himself back into reality. The voice was getting louder everyday it seemed but the man only allowed a fraction of his mind to wonder what it really meant; he dare not focus his entire mind and truly ponder its implications. Still in the recovery period, his veteran senses forced him to duck the second he heard the "thwunk" of an arrow embedding itself somewhere. By whatever was still out there in the heavens, Loheir hoped that it was either that halfing or that hunter and wasn't someone trying to add him to the number of bodies in front of him. At least not yet.