[ It's always about politics and religion, isn't it? He wonders how the Trojan War would have gone if not for the pact they had made to Helen, if not every man had thought of all the suitors that he would be the one chosen. If Menelaus was not the victor, perhaps Agamemnon would not be at the helm-- and in all sense of the word, there would be no war had Patroclus taken Helen to wife. He would have sent a messenger and ransom, would have made sacrifice to the gods if they did not obey these rules of civilized conduct. But there would be no war.

And that would not be as the Fates intended. ]

I will ask not what business the house of ALASTAIR has with the wild-eyed Qorral, but what do the Deemers seek? Is this kind of arson some ritual by which to please their false god?

[ That seems savage and barbaric to him, but he's unaware of the fact that he might seem the same to someone else. He thinks instead of the warm summer sun, hazy nights laid out in a war tent when he presses his cheek into the crook of Achilles' neck as he does now, sliding arms around his waist as if in reclamation of Achilles from the water's embrace. ]

And what of the gods receiving the Qorral's prayers? Are they not fit to dismiss this false idol?

[ It does seem that the gods in these parts keep requiring the help of a people who are mostly uninvolved in the first place. He circles his thumbs over Achilles' arm, sloughing away the dirt and the soot. He thinks to himself that they were chosen for these missions in the same way that they were chosen for the War, because they were so willing to go when soldiers were needed. How long will they be here? Another ten years? Twenty? ]