Brutin stood to his window and peered out, the sky was bright and the flowers below him absorbed their nutrients directly from the sun's gleaming care. today of all days was the holiday set aside for remembering the fallen in combat for the sacrifices they made. It was a day few considered outside a single day off from their tedium, life had become.

But for Brutin who had stood to the wall of Port Cos, or had fought alongside his fellow slavers against the Freedom Consortium or any other of the myriad wars he had fought, he remembered those that had fought alongside him and died. Whether successful in endeavor or a failure at the outset he remembered every one of them, for this was what it meant to remember, not the why of the battle but that he or she had fallen.

Hesse with his penchant for the rapier and lame jokes or Peronius and his stoic demeanor, having never reconciled the ways of RhyDin with home; Demonius the cruel sadist that had served so well in terrorizing and torturing both slaves and enemies, though more than capable of a smile and normal behavior; Of Telanus who was a friend from childhood and who had did his best to stay out of affairs and run a merchant house; Tarse, the first faithful Captain, so superstitious that he could not cross the street without looking twice and praying upon arrival; Sweet Melodie who had stood beside him and fought vampires and when she was taken and turned, never once cast a glare his way, and when she stood against him and he slew her, her death a second time he was witness to, they shared a kiss as she died in his arms. Targ and beserker who he met in the RDI and drank his purse dry in a night of revelry that still pained his head to remember who rushed headlong into battle one too many times; Pearl the cross dresser and her love of drama, having felled more than her share of warriors head on was backstabbed, by a woman.

This list continued in his head, the faces running by his eyes as memories gave the faces a story and he stood the time it took to remember them all. In a life as long as his it was a triumph to stamina that he managed to get through them all but wherein it had taken but an hour when he had arrived in RhyDin all those years ago, now it took the day and as Nadine approached to call him to dinner he broke from his reverie, the last face in a long chain spanning back centuries and then was gone.

He turned and smiled wanly to Nadine and then followed her towards the dining room.