"Harland," Vol said.
"Is there something else, Commander?" Harland asked. He too seemed to be pleased that the pace had been cut, despite his reasonable apprehension.
"Nothing much. Just curiosity," Vol said. "There's a few amongst those men with shadows on their faces. They're still reeling from what they saw in the forest. You're not one of them – I wonder why?"
"True enough," Harland said. "Though the men fought yesterday, they did so through the shadows that the mage left on them. I too was shaken by some of those traps that he left for us. I couldn't imagine that we'd ever see much worse in hell."
"And yet you're bright-eyed," Vol said, curious. "Why is that?"
Harland smiled bitterly. "Vol," he said, calling him by his name for the first time in a while. "I've lived my whole life in fear. Do you not remember seeing my hands shake when we took that first raid on the Freud's island? That was my first proper taste of combat."
