If you asked, Honsou would tell you. He would admit, reluctantly and in great pain, that this meeting had hurt him to some degree. After all, he never lied. That was well known.
But how could such a thing happen?
Those words seemed to still ring in his ears. He replayed them again and again, telling himself again and again that none of it was true. But in the end, he had no way to deceive himself. He could not make himself ignore fact and truth. He could not do it.
And so, Honsou began to recite the unbreakable Litany of Iron in silence.
Iron gave birth to strength. Strength gave birth to will. Will gave birth to faith. Faith gave birth to honor. Honor gave birth to iron. Again and again. He tried, attempting to calm himself this way.
He succeeded a little, but not by much. During that time, his dazed expression also drew the attention of many people within the station. Diose, a relatively young battle-brother, walked over and asked, "Warsmith, what happened?"
"...This is not something you should concern yourself with, Diose."
Honsou ended his daze and answered his young junior sternly, not moved in the slightest by his goodwill.
"You are trying to cross a boundary we set from the very beginning. We discussed this at the start of the mission. Only I can have true face-to-face contact with them, and—"
"—and anything else has nothing to do with us."
Diose sat down directly across from Honsou, showing a kind of ease and boldness. "I remember your teachings, Warsmith, but..."
He noticed Honsou's gaze growing more and more severe, and so shut his mouth at exactly the right moment.
Honsou shook his head. "There are no buts, Diose."
"All right, smith, but the Captain came