"So have I," Teja says. "All my adult life, there was war in our lands -- hidden and brewing at first, devastatingly in the open later. I would swing my axe in earnest, more often than not."

Pause.

"The oldest among the fighting men of my people was Hildebrand -- I was of one age with his grand-daughter Hilde, with whom he raised me in my youth; and yet, he stood beside me in my last battle, with his mighty stone war-hammer, and went on with my people, after my death. Compared to him, you are yet young!"