The following night Claus was sitting in his command tent in complete silence, he had lit the scented candle given to him by Dyril and the purple candle shone a deep yellow steady sheen, filling the straight walled tent filled with officers junk like maps, boxes and chests with a deep but pleasant lavender scent.
He was slouched back in his chair so much it seemed a wonder he was still in it, lazily pushing a ink bottle around while having a deeply troubled look on his face.
The ink bottle was throwing a shadow over his face as he moved it along, without any obvious reason he quickly sat up, took the candle and put it right under his nose, letting the hot air fill his nose with his deep inhale.
A strong flowery scent filled his senses completely and the heat really helped his tension in his forehead, which had sprung a headache which had lasted for hours.

He sat there sniffing for a while, thinking of how it had started.
Alenius must think of him as a lunatic fool, he knew he had nightmares from time to time. But they'd never been a problem before, never so strong either, never so real.
The heat of the candle reminded him of the flames, he quickly put it away almost putting it out by the speed.
She had just sat there as he told her he didn't know what happened, a clear lie since he knew perfectly and he was sure she saw right through that.
He had simply ignored her, gathered his things and opened the door only to find worried tenants had gathered outside their room to figure out what was going on.
He guessed he appeared as a panicked animal as he ignored their honest worries and left them to Alenius as he stormed past them and out.
The looks in their eyes had made him feel shame and insecurity.

He did not feel good, not in the slightest. It was dark out and normally he'd have gone to bed to get some extra sleep but not tonight.
He dared not sleep.
One of the few times in his life he remembered being struck with actual fear. But he remembered those deep red unblinking eyes... he shuddered.
It was so blissful the time that Dyril had spent with him following that horrible morning.
No worries, just reminiscing about better times and practicing some well needed accuracy training. For both of them. In truth he wasn't the best shot around.
After she left he had eaten the youtai with an initial excitement but after a few bites he had lost his appetite. The delicious bread not able to distract him from his haunting thoughts.
That was yesterday, he had wasted all day in the tent.
Not wanting to waste the fine gifts he poured some wine and brought forth the bread again, forcing himself to eat and drink.
The tastes were great, but he did not enjoy it.
It reminded him of the Beilokias, the odd clouds rolling over the mountains, the fungi forests with the gloomhawks circling above.
It reminded him of the battle of hymns.
With an increase in heart rate he froze all movements, his hand slightly shaking and the wine was forming circles from the movements. He stared intensely at nothing being caught in his memories of the fateful battle.
The confusion, the panic, the anguish and screams all coming back. Not to forget the red eyes... those dark spectres with red unblinking eyes.
Claus realised his frozen state and with shaking hands shugged the mug of wine and put it aside, now realising he still had bread in his mouth he swallowed that as well.

There were noises approaching his tent, two corpsmen, Jake and one of the new guys by the sounds of them speaking of... Scassia smoked stilton? They were closing fast.
Claus violently shook his face trying to get out some of the tension and smeared down on his face with his hands as well, sort of rejuvenating it.
As the two entered they quickly marched up to the centre of the tent and stood at attention and salute.
-"Steelhead, we're back from the job with the emperor." One of the reported.
Claus stood up and trying to act normal gave a moments smile and spoke.
-"So you enter my tent unannounced and speak of cheese from my home and didn't bring any? I'm disappointed." The two looked puzzled and slightly worried when Claus went on.
-"At ease, you new guys are such bores. Now what gives, there's a reason you felt like you needed to come here." He slouched back into his chair and met their eyes. Jake answered him.
-"Uh yes sir, we were at a test of some sort with the emperor visiting some alchemist and he had some really interesting stuff." Claus could see the gleeful engineer inside of his trooper so this was surely something interesting.
-"Yes? What?"
-"Blasting powder! Non magical!" The wide grinned Jake infected Claus with some of that excitement. Especially since all blasting powder the fist had ever used before had been magical in nature. Either needing a proper mage to use it or being ludicrously expensive for little worth, this was fascinating news.
As Claus listened to the full report he saw many opportunities with such potent powder, he just hoped the prize would be worth it and of course that the good emperor would let them have it.