Deep beneath the armor and the resolve and the desire to crusade and vindicate beat the heart of a scholar. It might be scarred and battered and completely repurposed these days, because no one could argue that Mar put himself body and soul into his life as a Blood Knight, but he still delighted in history and knowledge even as he shaped it.

She could get as many stories out of him as she wanted; he'd be happy to tell them all.

"There's a certain value in deciding you have to fight, and then doing it. Sometimes you succeed when you didn't think it was possible."