Shifting Tides - Part 1

"You are frightened," Oliver said to them. "And you are wise to be. Today, you have been frightened, and you have been tormented by your efforts in training. I pushed you to a point where other men would break. But you did not. Not a single one of you. You were consumed by fear, and you moved regardless. That is called courage, gentlemen."

He allowed his words to sit in the air, as he looked from man to man, in the same way he had earlier. He patted the man who he had given a weapon to on the shoulder, and then began to move down the line.

"Each of you has earned your right to choose a weapon. Only the courageous should be entitled to the tools of soldiery, and you have shown, despite how the nobility and the Serving Class scorn you, that courage comes more easily to you than it does to any other. If I had taken another group of a thousand, from anywhere in the country, I do not believe they would have endured as you have," Oliver said.