The man called up to the Fortressgate quietly. Gray streaked his beard, but time had not bent his posture since last he had seen these gates.
'I have come to see the Lord Captain Commander.'
No return call was made. He remained patient until a familiar face looked down from the battlements. Recognition on the eyes of a man who he had once called brother.
After a time the gates swung open. The man who strode forth moved with military crispness, radiating command. His eyes betrayed the calculated killer beneath the outer veneer.
'M'lord,' Atkins drawled touching finger to brow. 'You walk well for one whose cloak has become so burdened with ornament...'
Lord Anor Lin'Dyelyn, Child of the Light, Council of the Anointed, raised an eyebrow. He responded quietly, 'jokes? After so long you come to these gates with jokes?'
'I could have started with the truth, but you would have liked it no better.'
'Truth... speak truths to me then'
Running a hand through his beard Atkins nodded. 'Nothing you don't know. Barely a patrol to be seen in any direction beyond the borders of Amador, wolves running unchecked in the city treating the children as a farm for equipment, the extended reach of the tower... Much the same as it was.'
Silence stretched for a time.
'This is the truth you give me?'
A nod.
'And you are here for what? To remedy these truths?'
A smile. 'Well..'
'You left. Left others to carry your share of the burden. Without a care for what we have done, or who we have fought, how we have died... Because you have been busy with... what exactly?' Lord Anor spoke coldly.
Atkins nods again. 'Selfish its true. The fire for the long war had guttered out of me. But it has been rekindled.'
'Ah, how nice for us that your whim has turned in our favor.'
'If you want my apology, you have it. My grief, you have it' Atkins drawled.
'Some wanted your head. Some still do.'
Atkins smiled, 'not for sale.'
Anor paused, considering. Then grimacing, he turned he waved for Atkins to follow.