New Weapon

The waters of the palace baths were so warm that they almost put a man to sleep. Through the fog of steam, it was hard to see and soon their eyes stopped trying at all and they began to close, attempting to sleep.

They did not know quite how tired they were until they'd entered into its waters. With towels around their waists, the men leaned against the tiled sides, bearing their scarred muscular bodies for everyone to see.

The vigour that they had fought with and the vigour that they had arrived with had completely vanished. None of them said a word. They were far too tired for that now. They craved the soft support of a warm bed, but at the same time, none of them wished to part with the soothing heat of the bathwater for anything at all in the world.