Though not as bad as most, he was going through that stage where he knew everything worth knowing and nothing his elders said—particularly if it bore… - Glen Cook

Those soldiers hacked and slashed. Their faces were distorted with the horror of their actions but they were out of control, far past the point where they could stop. The flicker of firelight made everything seem more hellish and surreal.
I had seen this before. I had seen my own brothers this way, a few times, back in the north. The blood smell takes control and kills the mind and deadens the soul and there is nothing human left.

Baladitya understands that in addition to being foreign territory the past is, as history, a hall of mirrors that reflect the needs of souls observing from the present. Absolute fact serves the hungers of only a few disconnected people. Symbol and faith serve the rest.

Being an old cynic myself I have strong notions about the true value of human gratitude. It is a currency whose worth plunges by the hour.