They did not fight for glory. They fought for a single, bitter reason: the swordsman had once been the General’s captain. He had watched the Citadel fall, and he had run. He had left his honor in these stones.
"You cannot kill grief," the General hissed. the misty ruins and the lone swordsman
At the heart of the ruins, in the Throne Garden, he found what was left of his past. They did not fight for glory
"You are late," the General said, its voice the sound of grinding stones. "The past does not forgive tardiness." in the Throne Garden
The swordsman pulled his blade free. He did not sheath it. He simply stood there in the sudden, thinning mist as a true ray of sunlight—the first in a century—broke through the canopy and struck the throne.