"To apply pressure is to provoke a reaction. You had your reaction," Blackwell said. "I could not scold you even if you were one of my senior offers. However…"
"However, I lost Lombard," Oliver finished for him.
"You lost a sword that was precious to me. You snapped it straight in half," Blackwell said. "That fool ought to have accepted my offer to make a Colonel out of him. He was wasted until the very end. He told me that no Captain with a single arm deserved the rank of Colonel – that was only the newest excuse. Before that, he would tell me that he wasn't experienced enough. Isn't it ironic, boy, how one of my best men valued himself so much more lowly than other fools amongst my order value themselves, even knowing themselves to be weaker?"
"He had a strange wisdom…" Oliver said. "I thought him to be overbearing in his discipline when I first met him, but he never disciplined anyone more than he kept discipline of himself."
