Who, in the end, had turned out to be the perfect person, even if he did not have the answers I sought, for not only was he like an older brother to me, he was also a trained and tried soldier.

I’d broached it with him that very evening, on the rise of a moor in what I was discovering was the verdant green, gentle land that was Wodell.

After I shared my concerns, Mars was silent for a moment before he said, with no small amount of sadness, “This is common, I’m afraid, my little sister.”

Although it was sad, I had some relief, for if this night agitation was common, perhaps there were those who knew what to do about it.

“As that is so, how do I make this unrest in the nighttime cease for him?” I’d asked.

Mars had slid his arm around my waist and looked down at me, answering carefully, “Sometimes, it never goes away.”

That was not the answer I’d wished to hear.

Mars continued sharing.

“There are normally two kinds of generals, Farah. First are those who order their warriors to advance for the thrill of the battle, the desire to win at all costs. Men like this do not have trouble sleeping. They do not for they do not have the ability to count the true cost as they don’t understand the severity of it. Their warriors might as well be carved of wood and adjusted on a gaming board. They are not flesh and blood. Trajan, Cassius’s brother, was this kind of general.”

I had heard this of Prince Trajan, and I was not a woman to wish ill on anyone, but this, as well as many other things I’d heard about him, made me not think it was so bad he was no longer among us.

“And then there are those who weigh the cost, and lament it, even before their horses advance,” Mars went on. “Therefore, they do not advance unless they are assured their strategy will lead to as little loss as possible, with as much as possible to gain. These men, like Cassius, like myself, might not find sleep easy or we will face other reminders of what an order from our lips means to a soldier. It is inevitable. It cannot be escaped. It is, for a true general, yet another cost of battle.”

I had stared up at him, not liking that it was clear, in some way, he faced these same things.

Also knowing he was not quite done.

He wasn’t.