During a night's visit to the infirmary, I overheard a red priest speaking with my father about the Lieutenant Capor Nils' condition. Despite their greatest efforts, the physickers were convinced that the lieutenant's time would come soon, as death had already come for many of his comrades. They warned my father of this, and told him of the unimaginable pain Nils was enduring. And so my father made a difficult but necessary choice.
He visited Lieutenant Nils every day after that. Encouraged him to speak, to rest, to eat, and ensured that he was given as much comfort as the physickers could afford him. If the priests lacked for anything—supplies, food, bedding—my father personally ensured that the need was filled.
When the lieutenant finally rose from his sickbed one morning, it was said that my father's visits had lifted him from the mire of death. The physickers had played their part, but the duke's attention had given Nils the motivation to fight through his ails.
Following his miraculous recovery, and for his bravery in the battle to reclaim the mines, my father honored Nils with a promotion to captain. From that point onward Nils was ever my father's man, as near an extension of him as was my father's own sword.
