Rion's words echoed like a hammer striking metal, and everyone lowered their heads. Everyone except Balak.
Balak was Tarek's strongest squad leader as well as his battle partner and a great friend. He wasn't joining Rion just because he was strong and saved him, but because he had a flair similar to Tarek.
Tarek had been a curious man. The kind who defied whatever was said to him, not out of rebellion, but to build his own understanding of the world.
If someone said that scars are proof of strength, he shut them down by saying:
"Are you calling your failure to end the fight cleanly, strength?"
If someone said that following orders without question is loyalty, he shut them down by saying:
"Is it loyalty if you don't even know what you're dying for?"
If someone said that tradition exists for a reason, he shut them down by saying:
"Then it should survive being questioned, shouldn't it?"
