Trace

“Spare me! Please, I’m begging you, spare me!”

The voice was young. A boy’s, by the sound of it, and about my own age. But I did not lower the spear.

Carelessness is forbidden.

On a battlefield the ones you must be most wary of are children, old men, and women. None drew a man’s pity more readily than they did. An appeal to your humanity, a few tears, and any heart was bound to waver. That was the very moment the enemy aimed for. A moment’s carelessness took a life. So you never let appearances take you in; if...