"Lucky for you to have escaped the rot." It wasn't a sarcastic remark; it was lucky. Had any other Hayllians? Not bloody many. "It is too late for some," he agreed. He wasn't the sort to be uselessly optimistic, and that wasn't what Max needed to hear out of him. "But the battle does not end until one side's been bled dry. We still have more blood left in us." And they would water the ground for a new generation, of that he was convinced. He'd seen as much.