“Because,” Simeon, who had been standing in the crowd that had gathered to watch them leave, stepped forward. He was dressed in a traveler’s robe, not armor; he was not coming with them. “Because when you know a man with such ideals for long enough, you will fight for him.”

Incredulous her father continued, “You fight not even for ideals of your own but for a man? And one who will not survive any longer than you!”

“Deep down,” Simeon continued softly, “everyman wishes to uphold such ideals. To believe so fully in the goodness of man; to be Arthur. It sparks a love that the heaviest rains cannot put out, and then when the man goes to fight for the ideals…even if you do not believe in them you will fight for the man, because of that love.”

She avoided looking at Arthur’s face. There would be pain in his eyes. Simeon, his truest friend, could make such a speech, and yet would not accompany him.