"Does the feeling of grief and loss... ever fade away?" //Gadriel to Calgar :}
What Calgar was met with was honestly... a horrifically easy question for him.
He'd been standing at the deck with much of the Victrix Guard. With their return from Demerium, it meant much of the Company was lost-- around seven percent of the Chapter (of which, Calgar silently seethed at such a nightmare of a percentage... he would need to speak firmly with Acheran). Titus was in the medicae bay, and it seemed to be Gadriel had recovered enough.
The Chapter Master's head tilted off to Gadriel, and he hid the mournful expression he would've had with everyone else. A gauntleted hand came up, dwarfing the Sergeant's head, and pressing it lightly to his shoulder.
" ... Not fully. " Marneus murmured, " But you can adapt. "
" If you believe such wounds will heal, Sergeant, it will take time. Maybe lifetimes. Or maybe never at all-- I suppose it is a curse, to be human, when you feel so much. But, that is why we adapt. We learn from our grief and our loss, and we transform it. Maybe we use that energy to motivate us, or perhaps-- a way to guide us to something greater. "
His eye drifted over, and the glowing red of his bionic eye flickered.
" We lost many brothers here today. Their duties have ended-- and now they stand at the God-Emperor's side. In the end, what we can do is honor their sacrifice, Sergeant, and push forward just as they would. "
