[color=goldenrod][i][h2][center]Gerard Segremors[/center][/h2][/i][/color]

[@VitaVitaAR]

[color=goldenrod]"Right,"[/color] He nodded simply, breathing out through his nose as it seemed any potential offense was avoided. It was good to know she'd not begrudged the idea at all— last thing a man needed was to get under the skin of his commander. Regarding his condition... [color=goldenrod]"I ought to be back up to speed in a few days."[/color]

With that established, he returned to folding the concept over in his head, eyes scanning the shelves. If his Captain hadn't considered the sides that lied outside raw legends and academia, that wasn't unforgivable—his own notions of knighthood and chivalry stemmed from the same sources through the majority of his military career, after all. It was a reminder, if anything. Just as he was new to this station... she'd barely had any more tenure under hers.

Two of a suit, if not a kind.

His eyes narrowed as he glanced back to her, shaking off a little color from her cheeks. Probably kicking herself for missing the thread his experiences had naturally drawn him to, if he had to guess— he couldn't count the number of occasions he himself had fumed similarly. But more to the point, that meant his perspective and hers sat in contrast— his way of approaching the issue differed.

Best to share that, too. It might not have helped with her immediate shame, but if fighting alongside men like Fleuri and Nicomede had taught him anything, it was that the tools would give her the means to not blank on that again.

As he ambled between the shelves, ever searching, he spoke.

[color=goldenrod]"One of the things I learned was the landscape's role on the field,"[/color] he spoke with a tone more of recollection than declaration or teaching. He didn't have that much presumption in him, even after the reassurance that his help was favorable. [color=goldenrod]"How a battle can be shaped by it, how it directs troop flow, how you can use it to narrow your expectations ahead of time. All stuff I'm sure you know as well, but... from the perspective of a single soldier, I guess. Knowing where not to step, where our unit might get bogged down, how to read for signs of ambush. If you know a field's full of sinkholes, you skirt the edges unless you know the path."[/color]

Here, he found a potential candidate: [i]Thaln's Locales— The Many Faces of the Homeland[/i]. A little general, and not necessarily exactly what they were going to find their information in, but he had to imagine even an overview would mention areas of hostile terrain. Places hard to reach that a shard might be hidden, or perhaps...

[color=goldenrod]"My thinking's along similar lines here, I mean— That the land itself could end up being a clue. We know exposure to the shard can drive men crazy enough to kill one another from Fort Daelantine, right?"[/color] He slipped the book into the crook of his arm within the sling, wincing minutely but soldiering on. [color=goldenrod]"So I'd imagine one sitting in one place for a long time... might have that curse similarly desecrate the area around it, be it a temple or a valley or whatever you like. Such places that inspire madness ought to be warned away from, even if the rest has nothing to do with the shards."[/color]

Humble origins only mattered if they turned out to lack effect. Even a stick's a weapon, if you can beat a man over the head with it.

[color=goldenrod]"Anything you've come up with so far, ma'am?"[/color] he asked idly, pausing to peruse the tomes above head height behind his squint.