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It feels as if everything has come full circle. Once again they are fighting the Nords. Once again all of Resdayn is threatened. Once again Nerevar stands in front of the full War Council. Looking at Alandro Sul, serene and impeccable, slightly too beautiful to be real, still dark haired and young, Nerevar can almost believe that no time has passed at all. That nothing has changed. But then his gaze moves towards the rest of the group. He has always thought of Sotha Sil as Kena Sil, a teacher, an elder – but now the countless wrinkles and creases in his face make him truly look old, and one of his arms isn't flesh and blood anymore, but gleaming brass. Voryn's long hair is black no more, only a few strands are yet battling the steely grey atop his head, getting fewer the further up one looks. Almalexia still appears vaguely ageless, but Nerevar is fairly certain that these days her hair only stays red through the use of dye. Vivec – who once seemed so much younger than everyone else – now seems just as old as the rest of them, the few decades of age difference all but meaningless. And oh, Nerevar remembers: Back in those days of the first war Vivec had still worn hair. It's hard to imagine, really.
Seeing all those faces makes it easy to remember that almost 300 years have gone by. They have all become old. Nerevar is struck by that realization for a moment. The day is not that far off anymore when others will take over. Nerevar has never tried to think ahead towards a time where he will be no more. Though as a leader of many he should. 'You forget that you are mortal,' Voryn has once remarked.
But his mortality is starting to catch up with him, isn't it? He is still quick and deadly with his blades, but a subtle weariness has stolen its way into his heart, he can scarcely recall when it started. And all the things he has built, his alliances, the safety for his people that he has upheld for so long, they are all crumbling now.
More than the lines in the faces of his fellows and the grey in their hair it is the absence of Dumac among the number of the war councilors that drives home just how much has changed.