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And so it was that on a bleak day in early winter he broke his sword across his knee like a stick of dry kindling, dressed hiar on the far side of I was a fairly sireat deal of tiht His foolish decisions in the recent ere syite society

Pride and greed had come to the fore, and honor had vanished Narasan saw that as an obvious sign that the world itself was faltering and would soon pass out of existence

Narasan took a certain co at the end of days, his grief and shao to his final rest

3

The young foreigner was a very handsome man, and he passed Narasan’s place of business several tiued Narasan a bit Finally on a blustery winter day Narasan asked the young felloas troubling hi to find somebody here who’ll rentto even discuss it’

‘Did you speak with the soldiers themselves?’

‘I didn’t think that was per man appeared to be a hopeless innocent, but very sincere Narasan explained a few realities and then asked him why he needed to hire an army

‘There’s trouble in the wind at ho to need professional soldiers to help us deal with it’

Narasan found the notion of a war so Recent events had made wars here at home seem extremely unpleasant

Then Keselo came around the corner with yet another ploy to try to persuade Narasan to return to the ar officer back hoer, ‘and if he lives, he o far’ It occurred to Narasan that he’d quite often saidabout his nephew, and his sorrow returned to tear at hiner named Veltan appeared to be quite perceptive, and he i at Narasan’s heart Without knowing exactly why, Narasan briefly explained why he’d chosen to abandon his loomily concluded, ‘so in a little while it won’tto an end, you know’

‘I think you’ve seen what very few others have,’ Veltan told hih The world’s approaching the end of a cycle, not the end of tiinning either, if the truth were known’

A sense of awe caner was not at all what he seeered the ied off a nuht down to the point ‘I need your arold for its services If things go well, we’ll win, and winning’s all that really matters, whether it’s war or dice’